Eyes Bleed Tears
by Northernryu
Summary: Naruto&Sasuke. Both in hospital, the place of fate. Why are they there and how come they keep bumping into each other? Because they forever need each other to comfort each other. But with one deteriorating body, does 'forever' exist between the two?
1. Prologue

**Cye: Hello, nice to meet you or hi again, from "I wanna protect you". I am Cye and my mind is over-filled with FF ideas, so I decided to write and share them to people who might give it a try and appreciate reading my creations. Thanks for coming to read my FF, and I hope this series will entertain you as much as any other great FF writers out there, although there are still lots for me to improve on. Like I've mentioned a few times on other FFs, I really tend to write my chapters on the night (or rather, next morning at 2pm~ish) so I do proof-read but there's going to be a lot of grammatical mistakes in there. If you would kindly ignore them and let it slide please, and I'll fix them up when I have time to come back to them. Thanks ^^;;**

* * *

**Eyes bleed Tears**

* * *

**~Prologue~**

* * *

…3, 4, 5…

This staircase has 42 steps.

I've counted them more than enough now, but once again, I count them as I climb up, my clenching grip on the rail tightens as if holding for dear life.  
Not that death is my worst enemy.

…9, 10, 11…

Death is not unwelcoming, as it comes to knock on everyone's door one day, and it's a natural, unavoidable part of a sequence in life.

But then why am I shaking?

…15, 16, 17…

Almost half way up the stairs, there's a turning point. And I'm nearly there.

…19, 20, 21…

Ah, here it is.

I move my legs in a different direction till my bare feet touches the cold hospital stairs, the other half that leads me to the outside, the rooftop of the 14-storey high hospital.

But before I get to take another step forward, I'm hit by something that collides into me with so much force.

Sharp pain sears through my head as I hit the ground, and my arms shoot up to the bump on my head as I open my mouth wide to let out a mute cry.

I hear a grunt of the other, and then feel the person pulling oneself off me.

"Tch! Watch where you're going," I feel the amplitude of the person growling at me vibrate strongly against my ears. Not loud, but strong with irritation in his voice.

Before I get to apologize, he rushes past and strolls away with another click of his tongue.  
I let out a small sigh and pick myself up off the floor and rubbing my backside to ease the pain.

'_...was it my fault?_' I ask myself.

I shake away the question and allow my legs to lead me once again, up the second half of the stairway.  
Surprisingly enough, the pain inflicted upon my head that I had moments ago has totally disappeared, and my hands aren't shaking on the hand rail anymore.

What had made this difference?  
What is different to the me now, and the me a few minutes ago?

Without getting an answer, I just force my legs to walk upwards, taking closer and closer to my goal.

…33, 34, 35…

I'm almost there. Just a few more steps further.

…39, 40, 41… and the last step, 42.

I feel a shiver run up my spine, like always.

42*

…A bad luck number*.

…A death sign*.

I shake my head to and fro.

Never mind that. Open the door, and-

* * *

The cool, early autumn wind greets the boy's face, touching ever so lightly on his marked cheeks and ruffling his soft blond hair playfully, easing his slightly tensed heart and body.

The boy greets it back in silence, with eyes so bright that it looks like a pair of shards shared from a bit of the clear sky stretched out high and wide across the whole village.

* * *

**Note:**  
**Japanese superstition.**  
***42= Can be read as 'yon-jyu-ni'(forty-two) or 'shi' 'nin' (dead people)**  
**There is no such thing as room number 42 anywhere in Japan. And many don't have the 4th floor, since 'shi' means death, which is also another pronunciation of the number four.**


	2. Chapter 1: His all

Eyes bleed Tears

* * *

Chapter 1: His all

* * *

"Uchiha-sama!"

"Uchiha-sama! "

"He's gone again!"

"Where did he go!?"

"Uchiha-sama-!"

While the nurses were making a fuss over a broody raven-haired teen-aged boy who had apparently sneaked out of his personal room in the top floor of the hospital, another room exactly below was also unoccupied in the early hours of morning.  
But as vividly contrasting as white and black can be, the top ward was obviously well taken care of with many nurses to take care of the patients while the one below, not a single nurse was in sight and nobody knew or cared if this room was vacant or not, let alone a patient existing in floor below them.  
Wonders if the nurses knew the 14th floor was even used.

The raven was so fed up of the confined room as he felt that he was rather imprisoned rather than been taken care of and he despised all the nurses' treatments.  
He wasn't a star or a star's son even.  
He was supposed to be just a normal kid you see wherever you walk in the village.

The raven boy had successfully escaped from his personal prison, first thing in the early morning before the nurses came to check up on him. He moved out quickly but quietly with his skilled shinobi-like moves, before he gave any chances of getting caught by any white uniformed employees who would definitely try to stop him if they found him sneaking off like his previous attempts.

He _needed_ to go outside.  
This place was supposed to protect him in custody, but this place gave the exact opposite feel to him. He hated the small prison room he was given with the one small midget window that was the only source of natural light.  
He liked the light, but most of the time, it maintained closed while, the smell of antiseptics and the squeaky sound of equipment trolleys just made him sick.  
Stuck in this environment here for 5 years was more than enough to drive him insane and the urge to go outside.

The stairs leading him to the floor below was there in front of him, which he finally found after sneaking his way down the corridor smartly, avoiding the few nurses that came to do their job early in the morning on this ward.  
A rush of excitement ran through the boy's body all the way to the tips as he readied himself to push open those double doors of freedom.

"What are you doing?"

A voice from behind froze the boy's heart for a split second before he gritted his teeth and hastily banged open the door, ignoring the continuous calls from behind.  
He rushed down the stairs as fast as he could, skipping some steps without fail and just gracefully speeding up downwards, although that only lasted a few flights down the stairs before smashing into someone. A moment of chilling panic rushed down his spine before he realized that the person he collided into wasn't a white uniformed lady to escort him back to wherever he was supposed to be.

And fortunately for the two, they collided right at the middle section between two stairways and they toppled together down to the ground without much damage done to either party, except the minor crashing of the head against the floor which was bound to spring pain and tears to the eyes.

"Tch!," the raven-haired growled, "watch where you're going!"

The blond on the ground was clutching his head with a scrunched face, trying to bear the pain for a minute before rubbing it furiously to ease the pain away, making his messy hair even messier than it already was.

When the blond opened his eyes after that, and looked up to face the raven, he became lost for words in how mesmerizing the jewel-like pair of azure eyes were.  
He had never seen such beautiful eyes in his life -not that he usually bothered to look at people in the eye- that he had a moment of being stupidly dumbstruck, his feet rooted to the ground.  
It took him a given moment before realizing what he was doing and remembered that he wasn't supposed to care about anyone no matter the circumstances.  
This scrawny little boy probably had some disease or disorder since this was a hospital after all, and he was wearing a patient gown, although the raven couldn't help notice that this blond boy's gown, no matter how he looked at, was indecisively worn and tattered as if that was the only thing he wore for years.

Though the raven-haired said to himself that he didn't care about anyone, this curious blond boy still caught his interest.  
Enough to bother holding out his hand to help him in sympathy.  
But the azure eyes of the blonde's just stared straight back into the raven's dark onyx eyes until the pair of darkness showed annoyance with the lack of response, and with the short patience this raven had, pulled back his hand, taking it as rejection.  
He clicked his tongue in frustration, after having that slight interest wiped off and out of him, before leaving the blond on the ground, heading down the stairs again.

_What's up with that guy?_

At the reception of the hospital on the ground floor, the raven-haired registered his name to leave the hospital for the day. He clicked the pen which had been sitting on the front desk and twirled it between his fingers twice before writing his name down, pondering whether he should write is true name down or not.  
He then decided that nothing was going to change even if he wrote a different name, because it was only a matter of time before they figure out that he had used a fake name.  
He let the tip of his ball-point pen run smoothly across the registration book before setting the pen back down beside his name.

_Uchiha Sasuke_

* * *

Sasuke casually walked out of the hospital with his own feet, stepping on the pebbles that had been beneath his feet hell of a long time ago which Sasuke missed so much of.  
The fresh air was more welcoming to his lungs than anything compared to that dusty old hospital environment which he had to cope 24/7, for the last few years.

He was trapped in there for too long without light that now, his face, his thin arms and legs were pale as if there were barely any color glowing past his skin. Almost like an albino, except his hair that was as black as a raven's wing, and his dark, onyx eyes that stayed deep and dark, reflecting his emotions of frustration and anger.

He looked back at the old, worn, and not-so-white hospital after climbing up a hill where at the top, he saw the view of the whole village.  
And since the location of this hill was not far from the hospital and with the help of Sasuke's great vision, Sasuke was able to see some faces from the open windows of all floors except the top floor, _his_ ward.  
It was expected, but it still made Sasuke sigh at the sight and turned his heels, deciding to walk further, away into a nearby forest, when he stopped turning as one figure caught his eye.

A familiar figure stood at the rooftop of the hospital building, gazing out of the holes of the barbed wire fence.  
It was the dirty, spiky blond-haired boy who he had bumped into earlier and thanks to Sasuke's good eye sights, he was able to see the distorted face of the boy's, full of sorrow and solitude as he clutched onto the 2m high fence.

To Sasuke, it looked like the blond was a trapped bird in a cage where he didn't want to be but couldn't stretch and extend his wings out to fly freely.  
Just held a prisoner...  
Just like Sasuke himself...

Sasuke tore his eyes away from the blond and shook his head.  
It didn't matter.  
The blond was no concern to him.  
He was just another patient, a victim of the hospital like thousands of others.

He turned his back on the hospital, on the boy, and took a walk through the forest that he missed dearly.

What Sasuke didn't know then, was that it was this boy he just turned his back on that was going to be the person who he will soon be willing to give away his all to him…

His mind,

His heart,

His soul...


	3. Chapter 2: Twice

_What Sasuke didn't know then was that that boy he just turned his back on is going to be the person who he will soon willingly give away his all to him…_

_His mind,_

_His heart,_

_His soul…_

Chapter 2: Twice

When the raven-haired walked back towards the hospital from a day-long walk, he looked up to see the blond still there, not moving an inch from where he was before. Sasuke looked a bit surprised but plundered no deeper and kept his eyes back on the dark path that only had the guide light from the moon streaking the footpath dimly white, until he reached the bright yellow entrance door. He was washed away in a huge wave of nurses as soon as he set a foot inside the hospital and was swept to the centre of the main room on the ground floor. Many were shouting his name and asking questions frantically while others covered him with gowns, blankets and a mug of hot chocolate.

"_Shut up!_"

The noise died down completely when Sasuke's temper was at his limit and had raised his voice over the irritating young nurses.

Everyone stilled as Sasuke threw the blanket and gown off himself and pushed the drink away.

"If you care about me, let me free," Sasuke demanded in a somewhat calm voice. Sasuke was no longer a patient. 3 years ago he had a mental problem with seeing horrid slaughter of his family right before his eyes, and of which the murderer was his supposedly dearly loved big brother, Itachi. With Itachi still not caught, Sasuke was spending his time in hospital. Long after he had overcome most of his nights, Sasuke had no fear of getting outside, but was forbidden to be let out since Itachi was still unleashed and could come to take Sasuke's life as well, or so predicted. The hospital, unfortunately, was the best protection for Sasuke and to which they over-did the process.

The nurses looked at the small glaring boy with worries and frowns smeared across their faces until the doctor of the hospital came out from behind them, through a door, looking as if she had finished a job on all her patients for the day.

"You are free to go outside, Uchiha Sasuke. But under a few conditions," strong, loud voice offered Sasuke what he wanted to hear.

"…Doctor Tsunade," Sasuke addressed the lady in a low voice.

"'Tsunade is just fine," she said and scratched her head in annoyance as she neared the raven-haired, "you are only allowed to leave between the hours of 10:00am to 4:00pm, no earlier nor later than that."

Sasuke –being treated like a 5 year old- was about to protest, but before he got any words out of his mouth, Tsunade boomed, "_do I make myself clear!_"

Sasuke glared for a moment before nodding and heading up the stairs, alone. After he was far out of sight from the nurses, he ran up to the first floor elevator and pressed the highest button, the 12th. For some reasons that Sasuke didn't know, there wasn't an elevator going up to the 13th or 14th floor. Once he got of the 12th floor, he ran up the stairs so fast since he was taking out his frustration and anger on the spurt, that he once again collided into a familiar figure.

Sasuke heard himself groan as he picked himself off the floor for the second time that day.

"You again," Sasuke growled when he identified who he collided into. Scrawny looking blond on the ground below him could be no one but Naruto.

"…sorry," said Naruto with a fairly audible note, looking at the ground.

Naruto picked himself up off the floor but before he could take hold of the rail, his knee buckled and lost balance, falling head first down the stairs. Seeing this coming, Sasuke caught Naruto in his arms in a swift motion.

"…sorry," Naruto mumbled and got off Sasuke who took note of Naruto holding onto the rail with shaking hands.

"You mean 'thank you'," Sasuke said exasperated, and sounding a little harder than he meant to. Sasuke's word had caused Naruto to flinch and cover his head as he crouched down low on the ground, as if bracing himself for the worst.

"…thought... I was gonna hit you?" Sasuke asked, looking mildly surprised but kept his face in control, though he noted that he didn't even raise a hand to show any resemblance of starting a violent action. To this, Naruto slowly lowered his arms, looking straight into Sasuke's dark eyes, as if searching for hidden lies within.

After minutes of silence, Sasuke figured he wasn't going to get an answer, so he changed the subject.

"Oi, dobe. What's your name?"

The answer was a shake of a blond ruffled head.

"It is pointless to know if you are just going to forget it..." Naruto mumbled after that.

"Are you mocking my intelligence?" Sasuke growled coldly, hated being treated like a patient already when he wasn't one.

"No," Naruto quickly replied, shaking his head rapidly, after hearing the dangerous tone that he recognised as anger. He knew what would happen if he lets someone get angry and he was afraid what would come next.

"I'm just not worth enough to be remembered. I'm just nobody..." Naruto quietly insulted himself to show clearly he was inferior to the other.

"You aren't 'nobody' if I'm talking to you, idiot," Sasuke retorted, hating this gloomy, over-hanging conversation. He found it annoying and wanted to quickly end it.

"That's not what I mean-"

"Forget it," Sasuke cut off Naruto, pissed at him and the atmosphere he creates, and continued up the stairs to walk away from this highly irritating situation.

After awhile, Naruto followed his suit, and walked downstairs. His bare feet killed the sound as he descended slowly to his bedroom on the 14th floor, disturbing no one and nothing…

Sasuke lay on the cold, but soft bed which drained his tiredness and irritation away, only leaving curiosity of that unusual blond boy he came to coincidentally bump in twice in a single day. He had been here for awhile now, but had never seen that blond before and what he says, is much unlike the other patients, nor the nurses or doctors.

He wondered what ward and level that boy was in, without having the slightest occurrence come across his mind that he may be right above that boy's room, thinking about Sasuke as well.


	4. Chapter 3: Name

Chapter 3: Name

Six in the morning was Sasuke's time to wake up. He was allowed an alarm clock, which was his only belonging from his house. It was such a stupid fuss over each object, in Sasuke's opinion, searching for any danger that could be set up anywhere and trigger at any time. Everybody was being extra cautious for everything that was related to Uchiha that made Sasuke roll his eyes for so many times that he lost count.

He was bored to his wits within each half hour and he decided to take a tour of the hospital for the first time, actually. He never cared about where or what or who was in this hospital and Sasuke only suddenly thought of having to do this because he had a certain person stuck in his mind, bothering him throughout the night.

He didn't know why he found himself so curious about the anonymous blond boy, but his body and mind didn't deny, nor protest enough to hide that curiosity.

But before taking himself a tour, he decided to get some fresh air and slid off the bed.

His feet contacted the cold floor which sent him a small shiver through his body.

"Where are you going, Uchiha-sama?" was heard when Sasuke was about to exit through his room door. He was glad he was able to open his window and not much nurses were there to pull him back to bed which he had been through for the last few years until Sasuke became extremely rebellious against the nurses.

"Out," Sasuke replied shortly.

"I am afraid you are forbidden to go outside of the hospital before the hours of-"

"Not i_out_/i of the i_hospital_/i," Sasuke leaned on the words to make himself clear of what he had meant, and had a hint of sarcasm in his voice, treating the nurse like she was not so bright in the head. Sasuke saw hurt in the nurse's face but he didn't regret it. They needed to learn the fact that Sasuke wasn't a child no more.

_I don't need 50 mothers telling me what to do!_ Sasuke thought grumpily as he walked passed the nurse without a second glance at her.

At the end of the corridor of his floor, he put a hand on the door that lead to the outside, the roof top of the hospital.

Surprisingly, he found that that place was occupied, and by a certain familiar mop of blond.

The blond notices Sasuke's presence, but doesn't turn his face to acknowledge him, in other words, ignoring him.

"…you again," Sasuke said in a sigh-mixed mutter to himself in disbelief at the coincidence he was constantly having in sequence. He lowered himself beside the scrawny blond and that previous muttering Sasuke had breathed out made the other turn his head towards Sasuke, before turning back.

Silence was long carried between them which, funnily enough, wasn't an awkward one but the two just feeling the cool morning breeze.

The blond felt the breeze a little different to the usual morning when having a person beside him because that fact itself was unusual enough for him. That's why he found some courage within himself to speak up, just a little.

"…Uzumaki."

"What?" Sasuke asked, snapping his head towards the sudden voice.

"Uzumaki," said the blond, a little louder.

"A whirling vortex?"

He shook his head in answer.

"So why'd you say 'uzumaki' then?" Sasuke asked, but the blond didn't seem to want to speak. He found that a bit irritating and knew this was going to bother him, but he kept silent.

"...my name," regaining some courage again, the blond tried again.

Sasuke's eyes opened wide and deceived his ears.

"Your...name?" Sasuke repeated in a whisper, and then for the first time that day, Naruto looked up and locked his gaze on Sasuke's.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."

"...Naruto," Sasuke tried voicing that name slowly, making it sink deep into his memory cells.

"You don't need to remember it," the blond quickly mumbled and looked away. He only mentioned it because of what Sasuke had said to him previously, the day before.

"Hn, too late, dobe. I never forget what I input in my brain," Sasuke replied, gaining back his usual stoic mask he had dropped for a few minutes.

But as usual, receiving no reaction from the said boy, Sasuke wanted to know what was wrong with the blond, and why he was here in the hospital.

He knew that asking such a thing would be far too rude, and so he kept quiet even if it was the first time he had ever felt indulged into another person and felt curious about that person, wanting to know more.

Thinking such things, Sasuke had lost track of time that he realised what the time was when they were disturbed by a nurse.

"Uchiha-sama! There you are! You are late for breakfast," the nurse demanded, strolling over to the pair sitting down on the ground of the roof of the hospital.

The blond boy twitched when he heard his neighbour being addressed, which Sasuke didn't miss.

"Oh, Uchiha-sama. Have you made a fr-?" the nurse stopped in mid-sentence and paused her feet as well when she recognised who Sasuke was sitting with.

"Problem?" Sasuke asked smoothly.

When the nurse replied 'yes' in a quiet voice, Sasuke's eyes widened in disbelief and took a glance at the blond, who stared afar with somewhat distanced eyes with no reaction to the nurse's reply.

_He's... used to this?_ Sasuke thought, because that's what it seemed to him.

"Come, Uchiha-sama. Breakfast is ready," the nurse called out and turned her back towards the pair, walking towards the exit door.

Sasuke stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets but didn't make a move to follow the nurse at all.

"No."

The simple word rang within the three clearly as Sasuke voiced out his reply to the nurse who he couldn't forgive, even if he didn't express it with his stoic mask still attached to his face.

The nurse turned back at the owner of that voice in surprise.

"Sorry?" She asked, looking at the piercing black eyes that pinned her movement.

The scrawny blond also looked up at Sasuke, hearing a hint of anger in Sasuke's voice, wondering why that was.

"You said 'yes'. So I said 'no'," Sasuke explained his reply with such a cold tone, that this time, even the nurse found that hint of anger within that voice.

The azure blue eyes slightly widened in surprise as he realised that this 'Uchiha-sama' said person had taken the 'yes' from the nurse, very offensive towards him.

_How can a nurse say 'yes' so boldly in front of the actual patient?_

Getting to know another person had no rules or limits, and so Sasuke just couldn't understand why the nurse would answer that way, and take that kind of attitude towards this little blond patient whose age wasn't far off from himself.

On the other hand, it wasn't a common thing or this blond to come across a person who he hardly knew of, who suddenly defended him so boldly in front of a nurse, without even knowing the whole story that came with the blond.

_No... He's just rebellious against nurses_ the blond said to himself, to crush any hopes that was starting to slowly well up within him.

He didn't need those lights that were only just going to be snuffed out sooner or later. He didn't want anymore reminders of who he was, and how he was meant to be... 


	5. Chapter 4: Burning curiosity

_He didn't need those lights that were only just going to be snuffed out sooner or later. He didn't want anymore reminders of who he was, and how he was meant to be..._

Chapter 4: Burning curiosity

* * *

"...you should go," the blond murmured, melting blending the raven's red rage into the raven's calm, dark blue colour was back, although it still had a tinge of red existing within his emotions.

The raven still hesitated on moving away from the somewhat solitary blond who looked far into the distant landscape from the hospital roof top.

He probably was waiting for an 'I'll just be waiting here' or 'I won't go anywhere', after those words the blond murmured.

The silence told him he wasn't going to get anymore words from the blond's voice so the raven stared hard at him as he was the one to open his mouth.

"I'll be back, so stay here," the raven said in a steady voice, making sure it doesn't sound too eager. Curiosity was what was starting to eat up the insides of the raven who looked so calm on the outside, yet was not in any mind to ignore the existence of the blond. _Especially_ after seeing the nurse act towards his existence.

There was no reply, as if the blond couldn't hear, and his eyes became glass, just reflecting the colour of the azure sky.

Leaving no choice, Sasuke left the blond as he is, and felt that by the looks of it, this blond wasn't about to leave anytime soon.

"Uchiha-sama," the other nurses that took care of him greeted the raven at his door, receiving a glare from the broody "patient".

"The name is Sasuke, _without _any suffixes," he growled wondering how many times he had actually said those lines as he strode into "his room".

He downed his breakfast as quickly as he can and walked back up the steps he had earlier this morning.

The roof top was, to his disappointment, empty. There was no sign of that scrawny small blond anywhere.

This unexpectedly irritated him until a flash of Naruto's sad, lonely facial expression flashed in his mind.

_If he didn't want to really be alone... he wouldn't avoid being with me on purpose, would he? Or he has problems with his memory..._

After all, he _is_ a patient of a hospital, that wasn't something surprising, Sasuke concluded as he sighed and walked about the whole hospital, trying to find his main source of curiosity.

_Where are you?_

Sasuke growled at the hospital map drawn across the wall right beside the elevators indicating which floors were for which ward. Then something suddenly flicked in his mind as his eyes scanned across to the top level of where the elevator led to.

The elevator only went up to the 12th floor...

He had checked the 12th floor and the 13th floor. The 14th floor was out of bounds, and the 15th floor was his own...

_If you eliminate the impossible... however improbable... must be the truth... right?_

Sasuke waited for the patients on the elevator to get off before he pressed the button for the top level and backed away, crossing his arms and leaning back on the elevator wall.

"I've checked all floors... none of the rooms had your name on it..." Sasuke muttered to himself, though directing those words to his source of curiosity.

_Ting!_ The elevator indicated that he had reached the 12th level of the hospital. He stepped out of the elevator and started walking up the steps to the 13th floor, and then to the 14th.

Sasuke reached the 14th floor.

_Which means..._

He ignored the 'Out of Bounds' sign, and open the main doors to the 14th floor.

_...you have to be..._

His eyes widened at the site.

_...here._

He couldn't believe how deserted this floor was, without any electricity flowing through this section and the corridor scattered with hospital equipments.

It was exactly like a closed down hospital scene from a horror movie.

Sasuke gritted his teeth and brought the courage to move his legs forward into the horror scene.

He walked and peered into each open door, seeing –as expected- nothing and no one.

The steps on the cold floor of the corridor was kept quiet with Sasuke's caution, and those feet kept moving forward until one room was closed, unlike the others.

Placing a hand on the handle, Sasuke dared himself to open the door and push it open quietly.

He found the familiar bright blue orbs staring straight at him.

"...who?" the blond asked, and Sasuke decided that he was correct about the prediction of this blond having memory problems.

"Me, the one you crashed into twi-," Sasuke stopped in mid-sentence when something suddenly occurred to him.

_The one _I_ bumped into twice..._ Sasuke reworded them in his mind, _but _he_ was the one who apologised...without the slightest denial that I was the one who actually-_

"Why are you here?" the blond whispered, his eyes open wide in surprise, interrupting Sasuke's thoughts.

"You weren't there," Sasuke muttered under his breath, knowing that wasn't an answer for a brain-damaged blond.

"There...?" The blond whispered, matching Sasuke's quietness in tone.

That confirmed Sasuke's prediction completely, if he hadn't enough of proof of it before.

And rolling his eyes, he put up with having to explain 'there' to him, even though he found it a useless thing to do, and should have just shook his head in answer.

"The rooftop. I asked you to wait because I was going to come back to you," Sasuke answered briskly.

"Oh..." the blond's voice deflated, "...I had breakfast, so..."

Sasuke felt dumb.

_Of course_ this blond would have had breakfast if he _himself_ had breakfast as well.

"...right," he mumbled, looking away, cursing himself for missing out on the obvious.

"I could have waited," the blond continued, which lifted the raven's head up, caught with something tugging his concerns, but not quite getting what it was.

"I could have waited," he repeated, "but I chose not to..."

This phrase the blond just voiced out seemed very queer and churning that made Sasuke's mind distort, feeling something very wrong with the words.

Without thinking, he asked, "why?"

"Because I didn't believe those words."

_Because I didn't believe those words..._

_Because I didn't believe those words..._

_Because I didn't believe those words..._

"You... didn't...believe me?" Sasuke tried to understand and voiced out the thoughts, trying to summarise them.

"No, I didn't..." he whispered.

_He... remembers... _


	6. Chapter 5: Dragged in

Sasuke thought, and at first, realising that when you had confirmed and thought that you were 100% sure that you had it right when you had made the brain-loss prediction, that fact gives a shock and a jolt of fear, even if it was something a normal healthy and non-disordered person would do.

"Because I didn't believe those words."

_He remembers..._

* * *

Chapter 5: Dragged in

Fear comes first, and then comes anger. Sasuke balled his fists and gritted his teeth and glared upon the blond that was sitting on his bed, looking out the window.

_So he didn't believe in me, did he? Just walking off for me to act like a fool running around the hospital, searching for him?_

And then comes the confusion.

Something snaps within Sasuke and his balled fists relax instantly, his eyes flickers wide as realisation overcomes him.

_So then what? Why did he say 'who?'or..._

_...'why'?_

"If you remember me... then why did you ask 'who'? And then 'why'? As if... I'm not supposed to be here?" Sasuke questioned all his sentences, confused at the blond and himself, not exactly grasping the situation or the queer words that loosely hung around him, swirling his mind.

"...you shouldn't be here."

A heartbeat pounded strongly against Sasuke's ribcage. Somehow he felt that he shouldn't be here as well.

Not knowing why he felt that, or why he was even here to begin with, but being told that he wasn't supposed to be here gave him a feeling that was less familiar to any other emotions he felt before.

Was it fear? Guilt? Unease?

But then what was this pull he was feeling from both ends?

One side was trying to pull him away from this place, this boy, but the other would force him to stay, to stay attracted to the boy in the name of curiosity.

"...why?"

He had to keep talking. That was the only thing he could do to keep himself there, to keep talking with this blond, his source of infatuation.

"..."

The blond wouldn't speak, but neither did he repeat his previous words, so Sasuke stood, waiting for an answer he never knew if it even was going to be answered.

"13th floor...," the blond then answered quietly much like a wind, not quite sure if you can hear it or not, but its there.

"What?" Sasuke snapped back at the blond after he had been slowly dropping his gaze to the floor.

A small sigh then came from the blond as he sat on his hospital bed.

"If you include the 4th floor... this is the 13th floor," he replied, looking down at his hands that were helplessly placed on the blond's lap.

Sasuke didn't need to ask what was wrong with the 13th floor. It was obviously superstition that many of us had against this number. Not to mention, _our_ kind were especially most superstitious than any other. Shrines, fox spirits, 42, 4, black cat, cracking cutlery and whatever else people created with each symbolism.

"You shouldn't... come near me..." the blond whispered, as if he was talking to himself with his eyes downcast and looking deeper into the floor, looking distant.

"Why?" Sasuke asked again.

"...If you don't know, then it's better off not knowing," the blond mumbled.

"Is this the cause of people trying to avoid you?" Sasuke asked bluntly, that even he himself, after saying it felt like he was out of line.

Nevertheless, the blond just nodded without any sign of offence.

Noting perhaps that this blond was already immune to how people talked to him, or what they were talking behind their backs. And why that was, Sasuke was about to find out soon.

"But you're not going to tell me, which means...," Sasuke said slowly, carefully eyeing the blond's movement, waiting for a reaction that he assumed he would get, "...you don't actually want me to avoid you?"

Sasuke saw it. The flicker of the blond's eyes widening, as if what Sasuke had said was true enough, but the reaction was gone as quick as it came.

The blond was hiding it. But it was all too late to hide it from the raven. He saw the blond's true self, and he wasn't going to be fooled by that façade that the blond put up anymore.

The bed creaked loudly as the blond suddenly moved away from the Sasuke who was suddenly right beside him. So quiet like a ninja, even blond's with his high sensitivity, couldn't notice his movements.

There was panic evident in those daylight sky blue orbs while in contrast the dark night sky onyx eyes stared into them intensely, trying to find the emotions within them.

But the over-reaction was much too surprising for Sasuke that he actually had a rebound shock as well. The blond should have well been aware that Sasuke was walking towards him, walking within the blond's vision but perhaps the blond had disappeared into his world of mind more than he had thought.

"...?" the blond looked back into Sasuke's eyes and raised a brow in confusion to the other boy's actions.

"Talk" Sasuke suddenly demanded, "talk to me."

He leaned back and sat on the bed, gesturing that he wasn't going to leave any time now. The hesitant looking boy shifted on the bed, feeling warmth on the bed sheet where the raven's hands were just seconds ago.

"...you should leave," the blond quietly said again, not looking in Sasuke's direction.

"If you're saying that... then why do you look as though you're about to cry...?" Sasuke gritted his teeth as if feeling the other's pain of having to say something he didn't actually mean.

Indeed the blond so emotionally crucified that he was breaking apart. His façade was easy for Sasuke to break, or was it that this blond was too tired to keep it up no longer.

Either way, the looks of hopes dried up like his tears, showed nothing but pain of not even being able to weep.

Why the blond was in pain, Sasuke did not know, but the more he interacted with this boy, the more he got involved with this boy, the more he got consumed in it like being sucked into a whirlpool and not being able to stop himself from getting dragged in further and further.

Sasuke softened his voice and gave the blond the final words that broke the blond's now weak barrier.

"Come... talk to me,

_Naruto_."


	7. Chapter 6: I live here

_"Come... talk to me,_

_Naruto."_

* * *

Chapter 6: I live here

The daylight blue orbs opened widely as his name was spoken from the other.

His fingers evidently trembled from an emotion he couldn't quite understand.

"You... remembered my name..." Naruto stated the obvious fact, dumbfounded.

"Like I said, I'm not dumb enough to forget a person's name. As long as you've said your name, you become an existence I will not forget. That includes their name," Sasuke sighed scratching his head, mildly surprised at how weird each comeback was that was coming from that blond's mouth.

Naruto's heart filled with a warm bubbly feeling but immediately his brain sparked off an alert sign as he realised he needed to kill it off before it grew too much for him to be able to control.

He knew if he let this warmth grow, he will not be able to make it alive mentally and spiritually when that warmth diminished the second this raven found out all about him, creating a huge space of hollow emptiness.

The blond's face became blank as a mental mask was pulled. Sasuke's face gloomed for a minute, sensing his progress starting to reverse again.

"But Uchiha-sama..." Naruto said in a dead tone.

"The _name_ is _Sasuke_," Sasuke corrected with a hint of disgust, not liking him called his surname, on top of that, having the '-sama' suffix attached.

"Eh? Um... Sa-Sasuke...san,"

"_Sasuke_"

"...Sasuke," Naruto addressed in a quiet voice, "i-if you come near me... y-you...you'll..."

"If you don't want to say it, you don't need to," Sasuke cut in and leaned back on the bed, landing his back on the mattress with a soft thud. He looked up at the sky through the window, looking very relaxed. It didn't matter if Naruto tried to barricade himself again. He already knew how to get through his façade after already doing it once.

The action that told Naruto that this raven didn't mind his existence, felt some sort of relief and warmth.

"...can I ask," the blond hesitantly asked averting his eyes away from the stare from the night black eyes, "...why you are here?"

Sasuke groaned as he found himself in a familiar discussion again, having a feeling of circulating in an endless no-progress spiral, until the blond panicked at the groan and quickly rushed with the next few words.

"I meant in this hospital! Because you seem so to be walking and talking fine so..." Naruto blushed in embarrassment for spluttering.

This was embarrassing and a very rude question to ask if Sasuke was a patient of the hospital and since Naruto had said more than he was meant to, he prays for the worst not to come, which was offending his newly made friend and get him to stalk off.

But gritting his teeth, the only gave him laughter in response.

Naruto looked at the lying raven in shock.

Again, Naruto feels the warmth, a surge of something that he wasn't quite sure of because it was his first time to experience such feeling. But instinctively he liked what he was feeling. The laughter that rang sounded like a comfortable resonance in Naruto's ears and he liked the warm hearty expression the raven was wearing as he laughed, bringing Naruto's lips to curve the smallest smile, that was yet too small for Sasuke to notice, but even without much noticeable difference, Sasuke was slowly changing something inside Naruto that brought him closer to the light side of his life.

Noticing the stare, Sasuke's laughter subsides, and he sits up to face Naruto directly, although his smile never left his lips.

He hadn't laughed or smiled in a long time, perhaps not after his parents' death, but he liked the feeling of smiling. Happy wasn't quite the word to describe Sasuke's feeling, but something inside him eased and sent the grey fog away that was covering his emotions.

Naruto's existence strongly affected Sasuke and changing something within him, something that is very important, for Sasuke to discover later.

"Was it... a funny question?" Naruto asked, blushingly.

"No... it was just... unexpected, I should say," came the truthful reply from Sasuke who nearly started laughing off again because of Naruto's frequent blushing.

"..."

So knowing it wasn't particularly an offensive question, Naruto patiently waits for the answer to his question, which makes Sasuke's smile drop for a moment, thinking of how to answer.

"...I just live here," Sasuke murmurs after seconds of thought, but becoming confident in his words, he smiles and repeats his answer.

'I live here'

Those words gave ease in Naruto's ears, hinting him with the chosen words.

"What about you?"

Naruto picked up on Sasuke's hint fully this time and for the first time, he brings a smile to his lips as well, making noticeable to his new friend.

"I live here too."

It meant they were going to be there for a long time, but whether they had a disease or not, whether they were disorder or not, whether they were injured or not, it didn't matter, whether they were _forced_ to be here or not, each with different reasons.

Between these two, they both had their reasons for being here, but not wanting to say their situation that they have to cope, they'd rather keep that irrelevant information in the shadows and only bring friendship out into the broad.


	8. Chapter 7: No knowledge

_"I live here too."_

Chapter 7: No knowledge

Blue orbs stare at the distant sky, reflecting the azure blue colour more effectively than any other person in the village.

The blond boy leaned on the windowsill of his room and rested his chin on his palm as he sighed, playing a small smile on his lips.

Why his feelings were so up lifted recently was because of one certain person who had just entered through the door to the blond's room.

"I always wonder why you have such great sense of people's presence," Sasuke muttered under his breath as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked over towards the familiar blond which he had been visiting daily over these few weeks after their first encounter.

Naruto turned around to face Sasuke with a frown, not liking his tone of voice. It seemed that this was always the case every morning when he came along to this room.

Sasuke wouldn't tell Naruto why he was broody in the mornings, but it only took a few minutes of talking to melt Sasuke's foul mood, so the concern wasn't too much.

"Hey," Sasuke greeted, as he moved right up to Naruto and also stared out the window, resting his arms on the windowsill.

"...hey," Naruto replied quietly. He still wasn't used to having a person around, and hesitance was still there, dripping from his words.

Their conversations wouldn't be too long and they would always end up just sitting or lying together, just merely spending the time together, but they liked that calmness with the feel of relaxation with the presence of the other.

Like usual, neither Sasuke nor Naruto smiled much, as they were both the silent type, or rather, Sasuke was the silent type and Naruto was the type to stop talking when he realised that he was starting to get carried away. Sasuke would frown at those actions but would not press, respecting the blond's feelings of still being hesitant around him.

Although, he noticed this all too frequently that one day, he tried pointing that out to the blond whose sentence died away for the umpteenth time.

"You know... there's nothing wrong with wanting to talk a lot," said the raven, who had been sitting on the bed and looking out the window, suddenly turning to the blond who stopped talking.

Naruto, who had been putting brakes when he noticed he was talking for quite a period, had cursed himself inwardly for always noticing that, but looked up in surprise when he heard what Sasuke had to say.

The surprised look mildly counter-surprised Sasuke, finding that Naruto was lacking a bit of common sense, which was not just about the dying sentences, but everything else in general, which Sasuke was yet to find out the reason of.

"Don't... you find it boring?" Naruto tilted his head to one side while asking.

"No. I find it rather... amusing," Sasuke replied after putting it some thought into what he actually felt about what he was hearing from Naruto.

It was always about things that were very abstract. The way he expressed what he felt about things was very different to other people and Sasuke had found that very unique and interesting. Or at least, _much_ more than the nurses' flirting attempts at a certain raven boy, younger than their age.

Naruto's perspective of the world was much different to Sasuke's, especially since Naruto would describe everything with full of life as if it were painted with bright colours, while on the other hand, Sasuke only saw the world as a grey, hazy, lifeless place where it levelled his every day emotions.

Naruto looked slightly awed at Sasuke's compliment and felt a warm feeling tugging his insides, warming right up to his very cheeks. With that, he smiles sheepishly and starts talking something random again, but without much hesitation.

The blond found out a few more weeks later that the raven would not talk much, but will listen to his stories intently and acknowledged what he was saying, respecting him for how he saw things through his way. He also found that if he himself talked cheerfully, Sasuke would be more frequent in laughing along with him that gave him a rush of warmth pump through his body.

But just as much as he liked this feeling, he was afraid of the truth about himself reaching Sasuke's ears sooner or later.

Lady Tsunade would go to check on the two often, but she had frowned upon the raven countless times, until she saw more of Naruto's smile time to time.

Nevertheless of her checking in and somewhat taking care of the blond, he was afraid of her telling Sasuke about everything he was to know about the blond and his situation.

* * *

What I hated most was the mornings where the nurses come up to me with plastered smiles that were supposed to be warm, but to me, it was just plainly irritating. They would always greet me with sticky sweet voices, corrupting my ears so early in the morning. I hated everything about them. I hated this hospital. I hated how I was confined in this place for eternity! Well, technically it wasn't eternity, but it was for the time being because this state I was in wasn't going to change so soon.

I grabbed the breads off the breakfast plate like usual and flitted through the nurses without greeting them and strode off to the only place that calmed me, my only euphoria that existed in a ward right below my level in this very hospital that as ironic it can be, was a deserted floor looking like a scene from a horror movie.

My feet don't make much noise as I slide through the main doors of the ward, and my eyes set upon the same door that I go through every day. My feet stop when I hear a sound that was very concerning. It sounded like a sound of sobbing.

I slowly walked into the familiar room to see no one there. I placed my breakfast on a nearby table before walking closer to the noise which came from behind the single bed. Turning round the edges of the bed, there was a mop of blond, huddled in a tight hug of himself, sobbing against his knees.

"O, oi! What happened!" I asked, rushing forward to the sobbing bundle. He would only shake his head, but the feeling of worry only increased within me.

If he didn't want to talk about it, the only thing I would be able to do, is just stay by his side. Biting the urge to find out what went wrong, I kept content, and just tried to comfort the only friend I had who I couldn't understand at that very moment.

After that, Naruto's eyes looked a bit lifeless, and he wouldn't open his mouth to speak anymore. I didn't know what to do, and i_I_/i tried the talking. I told him about anything that came up to my mind which probably didn't reach Naruto's ears since his eyes flashed no emotion. It was similar to the ones that Sasuke had been seeing when he had first met him.

The next day, and the day after that, Naruto would still be in the same condition, but I kept trying to bring him back until one day, I snapped, losing patience.

"Oi, Naruto! You usura tonkachi! Snap out of it!" I growled, and to that, Naruto actually blinked, as if he suddenly restored himself from a shut down, which was literally true if we were to talk about his mental state.

"Usura... tonkachi?" Naruto asked.

I sighed in exasperation while a smile played on my lips.

"Out of all the words you could have reacted with... you choose _usura tonkachi_?" I asked in disbelief, shaking my head side to side.

_Wonders never cease with this blond..._

* * *

"Well, long time no see, usura tonkachi," said Sasuke with a smirk.

"What's usura tonkachi?" I asked again, finding his sentence weird, yet finding the unknown word more curious.

"It means baka," he replied.

_Oh..._

"Well, you had been out for a long time...," he said with a sigh. I think it sounded more like a sigh of relief than a sigh of irritation, so I take it as a good sign that I am not 'out' anymore.

"I was unconscious?" I asked, amused, because for me, I hadn't felt like I had... until my brain started racking the memories of what I had been through.

My heart suddenly felt so heavy.

I think my face showed it all once again, because Sasuke looked into my face, full of concern. His eyes suddenly lit up as if he thought of an idea, and he put a hand to my arm.

"Let's go up to the rooftop to get some fresh air," Sasuke suggested, and to that, I brought myself to smile a little, hoping I was doing it right...

* * *

Naruto's attempt of smile looked a bit off, but I could see he was trying.

So I didn't waste my time on letting Naruto drown again into that gloomy aura, so I pulled him up to his feet by his arm, and then shoved my hands in my pocket, heading off towards the door.

"Come," I said, gesturing the door with my head.

Naruto obediently followed me out.

Forgetting that the typical Naruto was one to clumsily fall from time to time on the steps, I walked up the steps first, and waited for the slow paced blond moving up towards me... until he slipped.

"Naruto!" I tried to grab his arm, but he fell and I watched in horror as the slow motion of the scene played itself in front of my very own eyes.

There was a huge bang where Naruto's smacked hard against the wall at the bottom, and afterwards, there was just silence.

I rushed as fast as ever in my life down the stairs and aided Naruto, who seemed to still be conscious.

"m'okay..." he mumbled within my arms, and a sigh of relief passed through my lips.

"You usura tonkachi! Watch where you're going carefully!" I had to say, before I looked at Naruto who looked up to meet my gaze.

But I didn't see what I expected...

And I found his azure blue sky turn into a deep shade of red...

"...Naruto,

_your eyes_..."


	9. Chapter 8: Secrets are kept silent

_"Naruto!" I tried to grab his arm, but he fell and I watched in horror as the slow motion of the scene played itself in front of my very own eyes._

_There was a huge bang where Naruto's smacked hard against the wall at the bottom, and afterwards, there was just silence.__  
__I rushed as fast as ever in my life down the stairs and aided Naruto, who seemed to still be conscious._

_"m'okay..."_

_"You usura tonkachi! Watch where you're going carefully!"_

_"Ow..."_

_"...Naruto,_

_your eyes_..."

* * *

Chapter 8: Secrets are kept silent

"...what?" Naruto said dumbly and then cringed when he felt the sore spot on his head.  
After a moment of silence when Naruto expected some sort of reply from Sasuke, he looked up to lock onto Sasuke's gaze and felt a jolt of fear when the other had fear and disgust mixed emotions reflecting his eyes.  
The thing he was afraid of...

"Move out of the way!" Tsunade shouted as she shoved Sasuke aside after getting a nurse call from Naruto. Sasuke had taken Naruto back to his room in the deserted horror-film ward, and had pressed the nurse call there to get a hold of the busy bossy head doctor of the hospital.  
Doctor Tsunade inspected Naruto's health and felt through the scruffy blond hair to search for any major damages before looking into those irises of his that had changed dramatically in a matter of seconds.

After a moment of silence, she sighed deeply and stood back up right in a presumptuous manner.

"Well, there's no obvious fracture or rupture of blood anywhere. We will be scanning your brain through the MRI just in case though.  
Tsunade's eyes shifted from the lifeless looking eyes of the blond, to the raven's, who stood at the door, looking quite lost for a change.

"You!" Tsunade addressed Sasuke, "come with me for a second. I have something to sa-"

"NO!" Naruto suddenly became fully aware of his surroundings and what he had just heard. He knew what Tsunade was going to talk about and he wanted to stop her from talking at all costs.  
He tried to scramble out of bed, but Tsunade caught him just in time and kept him in bed in a very forceful manner.

"NO! No! No! No! No! No! NO!" Naruto screamed, tears falling down his cheeks as he dreaded that it was all over if he stopped struggling now.

Sasuke, who didn't know what they were talking about or what was going on, just stood there rooted to the ground looking dumbly at the scene of two people struggling against each other until he heard a loud slap of a hand and shock was written all over his face.

The on-going screaming of 'no' had stopped immediately and even Naruto didn't know what happened until he slowly started to feel the sting and the heat from his cheek.  
His eyes started welling up with tears and he started to cry into his blanket covered knees as he hugged his trembling body.

After stopping Naruto's juvenile tantrum, she huffed and strode towards Sasuke, after feeling she did the job, but Sasuke didn't miss the flash of hurt look that was expressed upon that head doctor.

Leaving the weeping blond, the two stood outside the room, closing the door to gain some privacy because Tsunade couldn't have Naruto bawling out on each word that she tried to get out of her mouth.

"I'm going to make this straight and simple, boy!" she barked at Tsunade, pinning down the raven with her glaring eyes.  
Sasuke inwardly gulped at what he was going to get from her, but found it slightly surprising to see the doctor's facial features soften.

"By the way that boy is acting, I'm assuming you don't know anything about him," Tsunade stated rather than asked, but nevertheless, the raven nodded intently.

"I will tell you why he's here, so listen _carefully_ to each word I say," Tsunade demanded in a strict voice as she continued, "and you are to give your word that you are _not to go near that boy again!_ You will _not_ have anything to do with the boy and you will _not_ mention about this ward and you will forget about him clear and sound, _got that_!"

"...no, Ma'am."  
The downcast Sasuke's voice was quiet but Tsunade heard it quite clearly.

"What?" Was the only thing the elder doctor could ask back at the raven boy, who in turn, looked up with strong determined eyes.

"I'm not going to stay away from him. You're not going to keep me away. My will is to stay beside him as long as 'forever' can last," Sasuke's eyes gleamed with fire of solid determination.

Tsunade sighed and palmed her head as she found another juvenile that didn't clearly know what he was saying, and still had an immature, simple mind process.  
The raven clearly didn't know what he was getting himself involved in.

"_What_," Tsunade asked, "was the honest first impression you had when you first saw those eyes?"  
Tsunade looked very pissed, and Sasuke knew that there was no option of lying here.

"I-It was... creepy a-and... gross..." Sasuke stammered, not really wanting to admit it but not able to lie. It wasn't a red iris that looked human and not something awesome looking to have, like the characteristics of a fictional character in picture books. It was bloody like a horror-movie ghost eye with animal-like thin slit pupils.

"Right!," Tsunade growled, trying best not to lose her temper, "but this is only the start of that boy's change in body which is very different to a normal person's as you may be well aware of by now. If you are to feel those emotions, that boy is going to feel it. If you stay longer with him, the more he's going to be hurt when you reject being by his side. I'm telling you to stay away from him _now_because it will be better for both of you before it gets worse."

Sasuke looked down and gritted his teeth. He wasn't dumb enough to know what Tsunade was saying. He knew she was genuinely worried about Naruto.  
He knew that her reasoning was reasonable and that he had no evidence of being able to keep his promise of being by Naruto's side no matter what he will look like or turn out to be like, especially after hearing that this was only a first and that he was already grossed out about it.  
He gave a deeply shivering sigh before he made up in his mind something very important, and something he promised himself that would never change.

"Don't tell me anything. He didn't want you to tell me about his condition, right? Then I won't hear it until he's willing to tell me. But even if he _does_tell me, I'm never going to leave his side. I made up my mind that Naruto is my friend, and I won't ever change that fact, no matter what there is to come at us ahead!"

Tsunade had opened her mouth to retort when she heard the raven boy say the blond's name. She closed her mouth and stared at the boy in front of her and seemed to be thinking deeply, considering what he had stated out loud which previously she had not been keen to listen to at all.

"Fine!" Tsunade barked as she wheeled her heels 180 degrees and stalked out of the ward after leaving a few words that admitted defeat against the raven, "do what you want!"

Sasuke felt the body muscles relax and release the tension as he sighed in relief.  
He quietly put a hand to the cold metal doorknob and considered the whole conversation for a moment.  
After all the chaos circling in his mind, he reconfirmed within himself the determination of being beside the blond and supporting him to no ends.

He grabbed the door knob firmly and walked into where his blond was.

* * *

It's all over... it's all over... while unstoppable tears and sadness consumed and kept pouring out of me, draining my hope and energy until my tears were slightly subsiding.  
It was interesting to know, that no matter how sad you are, eyes dry up and you can't really cry a river even though the sadness and the pain never subsides the slightest.

I heard the doorknob turn and the quiet footsteps which was Sasuke's signature. I recognised his sound immediately and I looked up.

"Hey..." he called out to me, not sounding distressed.

"..."  
I couldn't answer.  
Confusion rose within me while I was met with Sasuke who seemed to not change at all from the usual Sasuke.

* * *

His eyes widened and his mouth slightly agape as he heard me greet him with the usual tone of voice.

I chuckled at his face which seemed to show pure confusion.

"I didn't hear anything," I told him, reassuring his emotions that I knew weren't ready with telling me about himself, "because you told me what you were doing here."

Naruto looked even more confused, but I was able to make him pull a small smile when I explained what I meant by those words.

"You just simply live here, right? Just like me."

"...yea. I just live here."


	10. Chapter 9: Bad apples

_"You just simply live here, right? Just like me."_

_"...yea. I just live here."_

* * *

Chapter 9: Apple is not long lasting without salt

_This is just the start, huh?_Sasuke thought as twirled around after reminiscing Doctor Tsunade's words as Naruto's monstrous red eyes constantly flashed in his mind.

What exactly had Naruto got to make his eyes turn into those... hungry looking deep red eyes?  
It was definitely not a regular symptom that you see every now and then, and Sasuke was trying to find the answer to his own question.

The more frequent Naruto's eyes flashed red, the more Sasuke got used to... which then he noticed something unusual.

How to put it... when Naruto's eyes were flashing a devilish red, they looked more alive than his usual crystal blue eyes, even though the azure colour was much more beautiful than Sasuke could ever imagine.

That curiosity bugged him, and at that time, he didn't know that all was going to be much clearer when Naruto's second stage symptom took place, changing Sasuke's perspective dramatically.

* * *

"Sasuke...?" I called out quietly after listening to Sasuke for awhile, twirling the apple in his hand, and I knew he was thinking deeply about something, because he was supposed to be skinning the apple for us to eat.

"Hmmm...?" was Sasuke's reply as he lazily came to. He quickly seem to realise he took a flight to another world for awhile and he quickly apologised.

With a quick movement of slicing the apples with nimble fingers, Sasuke cut the apples and then handed them over to me.  
I attempt to grab a piece, but fail to as I lose my mark on the plate, almost tipping the whole plate over.

"S-sssorry!" I stammered with an inexcusable apology.  
Sasuke keep repeating its okay, but I really feel shameful as I can feel Sasuke sensing something unusual about me.

_Yes, I know I'm weird... I know I'm not normal... I know it! I know it so just... please..._

Naruto had reached for the apples that I offered, but something about his aim was off. And since I noticed that slight difference, I was able to make it in time to prevent the plate from toppling over when Naruto accidentally reached too far to get the apple pieces.  
Another one of Naruto's weird moments that I seemed to catch rather quite frequently.

What was wrong with him, I didn't quite know. But it seemed more than just a mere clumsiness that he was having.

_Maybe he has a slight disorientated disorder of some sort... or is this another symptom of this rare disease he's carrying?_

He must've felt my stare strongly and had taken it badly, because as he repeatedly apologised, I saw his face contort with pain as his body visibly trembled.  
He was still not used to trusting me, and that the stares he feels from me aren't like from others, as he once told me.

_The eyes... I always feel the eyes of people... staring at me in disgust... discriminating with their stare... shooting daggers with their eyes... trying to kill me with their eyes... they all hate me... I feel it... the eyes! The eyes!_

I still remember those words when he had once broken down into depression that he did once in awhile, and had told me about the stares that he felt, and how he felt about them, so I knew he was very sensitive to stares.

"I'm not like them, Naruto," I say clearly as I leaned forward towards him, trying to get through the cracks of his heart, trying to mend the temporary crushing down feelings.

Doctor Tsunade had told me that once Naruto was in depression stage, you just had to leave him alone for awhile to make him just get over it himself or else I'd tire myself out, but if this method was better for Naruto, I didn't mind repeating the slow procedure over and over until Naruto comes out of it.

"It's okay, I'm not going to leave you," I tried to soothe.  
To my surprise, Naruto came out much earlier than expected.  
Either his downfall into depression was shallower than it seemed, or that he was progressing to get out of it faster.

But whatever the reason, his body stopped trembling and he shakily turned his head round to me, still showing a hint of fear reflecting in his azure pair of eyes.

"Now, lets eat together, or else it's going to be lest crispy and tasty," I tried on a smile as I placed a piece of apple into his hands that lay in front of him.

* * *

It was more than two months after the incident with the red eyes being revealed to that other annoying brat. I was still concerned about Naruto, because I still couldn't trust those sincere words of the brat's who said will not reject Naruto.

He was just a kid, but the problem was far beyond a kid's knowledge and it was a situation where it was too much for a brat to handle responsibility of his outspoken words.  
Since Naruto's red eyes were becoming frequent, I snuck up to the unused ward and checked upon them from time to time.

And here I was again, sneaking into the ward, viewing the two brats from the slightly open door.  
Just as I focused my eyes upon the two, I saw Naruto's eyes, falling into the depths of depression again.

It was those eyes I saw for as long as I could remember, and the eyes that will cloud his mind so heavily that he makes a hard-covered shell which won't ever let anyone in.

I tried to talk him out a few times, and tried different strategies to pull him out of it, but every attempt failed, but I came to know that whether or not I tried to talk him through it to pull him, he would come back out of the shell after a few days, although always looking slightly more distant with each time as he rose back to the surface.

_It was probably a piece of his soul that was slowly fading bit by bit._

"I'm not like them, Naruto," I heard the brat say.  
I was slightly amused at how this brat can keep at it when the effort was fruitless, but then my jaws dropped after that.

"It's okay, I'm not going to leave you."  
After those words left the brat's mouth, I saw Naruto's eyes flicker life again, and turn towards the brat.

I couldn't see the brat's face because he had his back faced towards me as he sat upon a stool beside Naruto's bed, but I could tell he was surprised when he spoke once again. The tone was still slightly surprised, although he sounded slightly happy and encouraging.

_If this wasn't enough of a proof that this brat is a big support to Naruto, then no one or nothing is,_I thought at this particular moment, and decided to put my faith upon this Uchiha brat.

I felt a smile play upon my lips as I saw Naruto smile as he brought the apple piece towards his mouth, munching on the still crispy and sweet apple.

* * *

_Now that I think back now, I think Naruto was like this piece of apple._

_If it was eaten quickly, or had been worked upon strategy such as dipping the apple into salt water, the apple would stay crisp, but if it was to be laid out, forgotten upon a plate, it will change into a dirty brown colour and shrivel._

_Naruto needed the support, and the brat was probably the salt for Naruto.__  
__The water, being me, wasn't good enough by itself..._

_Without the salt, the apple will turn soggy in the long run..._

_For Naruto to not lock himself up into the black hole he himself created, he needed that brat, and I understand that well now..._


	11. Chapter 10: Wheel of fortune

_Now that I think back now, I think Naruto was like this piece of apple._

_If it was eaten quickly, or had been worked upon strategy such as dipping the apple into salt water, the apple would stay crisp, but if it was to be laid out, forgotten upon a plate, it will change into a dirty brown colour and shrivel._

_Naruto needed the support, and the brat was probably the salt for Naruto._  
_The water, being me, wasn't good enough by itself..._

_Without the salt, the apple will turn soggy in the long run..._

_For Naruto to not lock himself up into the black hole he himself created, he needed that brat, and I understand that well now..._

* * *

Chapter 10: Wheel of fortune starts to turn

Sasuke eyes showed less fear as the more he saw those red irises that Naruto quite frequently showed. Another month had passed and the weather was getting colder.

Tranquil time passed by as the bond between the two slowly grew stronger, creating friendship and trust.  
Naruto would grin broadly as if he hadn't ever been that quiet, expressionless scruffy blond before. He radiated more life into his face expressions and his voice rang in colourful strings of tones, widening the range of emotions that had once been bottled up and locked away deep within his heart.  
Sasuke had dug up that part of the soul that Naruto was lacking, bringing him more to life.

On the other hand, whilst Sasuke's face expression had softened greatly and more frequently played a smile across his lips, he still had that one thought nagging him without a rest.  
He couldn't help but wonder what was happening to Naruto's body, what was so different with him, enough to be stared at like a freak, and what Naruto was afraid of.  
He knew he couldn't ask, and just had to wait patiently until Naruto would talk about it himself, but his curiosity never ceased.

* * *

Naruto's eyes fluttered open, revealing the pair of azure blue jewels which is probably what I liked most about him. It was nature's hidden treasure that people were not bothered enough to look at properly.

It wasn't a good thing at all to know that people will not even _try _to look at how beautiful his eyes were, but a part of me was actually a bit happy to know that only I get to know how beautiful they are, and that I was the only one who could see them like this every day at a close range, as if they were my property.

Naruto groaned and rubbed his eyes as he struggled to sit up.

"Morning, sleepy head," I said, letting out a chuckle.

"Morn'n, jeez~, why the hell are you always so early?" he asked, groaning a bit more.  
He still looked dozey, as if he was about to slump back and fall asleep right there.

It wasn't that Naruto wasn't an early waker, but after the incident of his eyes, the frequency of the occurrence seemed to drain his energy a lot more, making Naruto much more tired as the days passed, which was another thing that worried me to no end.

"Today's a real good weather. Do you want to go to the roof again?" I offered.  
Sleepy-the-less, Naruto widened his smile and nodded.

"Yeah..."

_Today was the day that the wheel of our fortune, which held the options of our destiny, came off the base, and started spinning out of control, down the hill, slowly chipping chunks out of the wheel, bit by bit until... what is left for us at the end._

"Watch your step, dobe," I joked at the clumsy Naruto who was tripping over a few steps up the stairs again. It was his usual routine and I got so used to it that I knew when and where to catch him or support him... or occasionally let him fall purposely when I knew it would cause only a light damage.  
At times like that, Naruto would growl at me and I would laugh at him.  
It was those kinds of prank that I was playing at again today...

We were half way up the stairs again, at the turning point where the stairs was wider so we'd turn 180 degrees to get on with the next half of the stairs.

Naruto tripped again, and I let him fall, and he fell with his arms reflex moving forward to the ground before his face, but nevertheless, he still hit his face on the ground with an "mpf!"

"Sasuke!" Naruto quickly turned around and barked at me who was already barking his head off with laughter...

...but quickly cut off short when Naruto turned around.  
At that instant, my blood froze and my eyes widened.

"N-Na...ruto...," I managed to stammer after I found my voice, "are you... are you okay?"

"Huh...?" Naruto cranked his head and furrowed his brows, "wha-?"  
He then probably felt something dripping down his cheeks, and his hands reached up to touch them.

It was blood.

Blood was dripping down his cheeks from his eyes like leaking taps from the red, voracious mammal like eyes. Fear gripped Naruto and his arms started visibly shaking, uncontrollably.  
And then, as if his brain registered from that vision, he started clutching his eyes and started screaming in agony.

"AAAAAHHHHHH~! SASUKEEEEEE! HELP ME! IT HURTS! SASUKE-!"

I panicked and my hands were so numb I couldn't even feel my fingers. My mind went blank and I didn't know what to do. Blood was rushing and the heart was pumping so fast that I was starting to hyperventilate from fear. I had no idea what to do.

_What do I do! What do I do! What do I do! What do I do! What do I do! WHAT DO I DO!_

Without thinking, I went down to my knees and cradled Naruto, trying to get him to sit upright and onto my back so I could take him back to his room where there's a nurse call for us to call Doctor Tsunade.  
My own arms were shaking violently as I tried to move the screaming Naruto forcefully onto my back to transport him.

Naruto seemed to have lost all his senses except the agonising pain and he just constantly screamed and screamed, shaking me to the core.

My legs were shaky as I desperately dashed down the stairs, almost toppling over.  
I don't recall it much but I had probably crashed into the wall a few times, as my wobbly legs never managed to run straight.  
But after what seemed like ages, I got Naruto to his bedroom and Naruto was still clutching his bloody eyes that didn't seem to stop flowing with bright red blood, staining his old, not-so-white patient clothes.

Immediately after the nurse call, Doctor Tsunade came with loud footsteps echoing down the corridor.  
I was shoved aside, and was told to wait outside where I just shook uncontrollably, not being able to fully interpret what had happened, or calm my feelings down.  
I gripped my clammy, cold hands together, trying to stop the shaking without any success and couldn't even attempt to stop the racing heart that was just panicking for what was happening to Naruto.  
I looked down my shirt that was marked with drops of Naruto's blood, stanching like the smell of rusting iron.

_What's going on! What happened to Naruto! Is he going to be okay! What kind of disease has that kind of symptom! Is he going to live! Why did this happen to Naruto! What's going to happen to him!_

Millions of questions swirled in my mind that I didn't realise I was stressing and sweating and hyperventilating, making it hard for me to breathe.

I felt my body lose its strength and I fell to the ground, grabbing at my throat, choking from the lack of oxygen that was being transported to my lungs.  
My vision was getting blurry and my body was starting to burn.  
The last thing I saw was Doctor Tsunade coming out of Naruto's bedroom and rushing over towards me.

"Oi, brat! Are you okay! can you hea me...hey h..-ng n thea..."  
And then my world went black.

_Hey, Naruto... would you be okay...?  
Please don't leave my side...  
Not you too... please._


	12. Chapter 11: Emergency calls

_Hey, Naruto... would you be okay...?__  
__Please don't leave my side...__  
__Not you too... please._

* * *

Chapter 11: Start of an emergency call

When I heard the nurse call from Naruto's bedroom number, I stood up off my chair so fast that it toppled over, but without bothering to put it back upright, I dashed out of my office.  
I slammed my fist on the elevator button so hard that a small crack was heard, but impatient as I already was, I grunted and took a flight up the stairs as fast as my legs could take me seemingly that probably reaching the kid's room by foot was much faster and reliable.

I knew that it was an emergency because it was round about the estimated time that Naruto would start having fatal symptoms. I had being not exactly been waiting, but more of nervously been watching out for this moment to come for the past few weeks, restlessly so much that I had been lacking sleep recently.

This was only just the start of the major symptoms that were to come for that kid and there was no telling what was going to happen next after each step except a vague idea of just being 'body deterioration', but I didn't want to screw up from the first step because I had promised that person to protect Naruto no matter what.

_It was one promise I could never break even if it will break me apart mentally!_

When I reached the room, Naruto was screaming as bright red blood was gushing out of his eyes. Knocking the frozen Uchiha brat to the side, I examined Naruto before I knew what I had to do.  
I carelessly shoved the Uchiha brat outside and told him to wait outside for he would be in the way.  
He had seemed to be paling from shock and there was no way he would've been able to give me a hand or think coherently with that paralyzed state he was in.

I got out a transceiver out and summoned Shizune to come over.  
I knew that she wasn't too keen on helping me with a surgery that had to do anything with Naruto, but I hadn't any choice but to get her to help because at this stage, Naruto was beyond help with just the help of my hands alone.  
Moreover, although Shizune doesn't quite agree to giving me a helping hand, she never disappoints me and never decline help that I ask for, unlike any other nurses in this hospital, being a worthy and most helpful assistant I could ever have, enough to trust her for assisting me for any operations I had awaiting for me.

Shizune rushed to my side as soon as she reached the room. I quickly explained the situation and what tools I would be needed which then she quickly got them ready by the minute and was assisting right beside me as perfect as I could ever ask for.

Naruto needed immediate treatment to stop the blood flowing or else he would die from the blood loss, or even before that, die from the pain that he was receiving which was almost too much for him at this point.  
I forcefully pulled his arms away from him, revealing the blood spurting eyes that were red with devil-looking slits for iris and it was just like what the villagers, the nurses and everybody else had in mind.

Shizune paled at the sight but I yelled at her out of trance and ordered her to put give Naruto the anaesthetic drugs while I held down the violently struggling and squirming body that was writhing in agony.

A few minutes passed and Naruto finally calmed down, letting the drugs take in affect and control over his body and after checking that he was fully under the drug's effect, I breathed in deeply and focused my mind.

The drugs would normally be done by a doctor like myself, but Shizune refused to touch the kid, which was part of the deal that she was giving me a helping hand with any of the operations related to him.  
Although she is reliable, she too, was afraid of him and that was something understandable...

"Um... Tsunade-sama..." Shizune panted as she handed me the specific tool I needed next, "is that Uchiha Sasuke... out there?"

"Yes. What about him?" I barked. I know I had a temper I needed to control, but I couldn't help it when I was in such an emergency state.

"He looked paler than usual and was shaking uncontrollably...shouldn't he be looked at too?" Shizune continued, ignoring my attitude, as she was used to it already. I too noticed those symptoms but there was no other option than to leave the brat be and only hope that he would be alright.

"He will later be looked after!" I growled and started Naruto's operation on his eyes.

_You better pull through, Naruto. For that brat's sake too!_

After the short operation was done to stop the bleeding, I sighed in relief. All I had to do now was get Naruto to a proper operation room to do some hourly operations without the need to worry about him nearing fatal zones again.

I immediately pulled my mask off and strode towards the door.  
During the whole operation, I couldn't help but glance towards the closed door where the Uchiha brat was on the other side, waiting helplessly and restlessly.  
Although I was worried about him, I had to get Naruto's eyes done first. Once it was done, I rushed over to where the brat was, hoping that nothing was wrong with him.

_After all... he is the brother of..._

I slammed the door open and to my shock, found the brat clutching his throat, hyperventilating, almost close to choking.

_Sh-t!_

Acting my job instinctively fast, I grabbed the brat's body up to inspect him more closely. He was about to lose conscious from lack of breathing.

"Oi, brat! Are you okay! Can you hear me!" I shouted as I lifted his body up to take him to Naruto's bedroom. The brat's bedroom was too far away for him to last.

"SHIZUNE!"  
No need to shout, she was already a step ahead of me, and had brought a spare bed from another room.  
Shizune was at the tip of my fingers, assisting me without the need of instructions that I ordered nevertheless, instinctively.

I pumped down upon the brat's chest and brought him back to breathing again where the brat tiredly opened his eyelids and rolled his eyes towards my direction.  
A sigh of relief huffed out from between my lips and I saw Shizune's shoulders relax at the corner of my vision.

"...N-Naru...to... he...?" the brat rasped.

"He's fine. He is to go under a 3 hour operation, but he's out of the fatal zone now. He's sleeping soundlessly under the drug's effect," I managed to inform him breathlessly.  
The brat weakly smiled before dropping back to unconsciousness, but maintaining his breathing this time.

_What troublesome pair of brats we have here..._I thought as I slumped down onto a chair, provided by Shizune.

"A job well done, Doctor Tsunade," Shizune said and she ripped off her rubber gloves before taking her leave.

I closed my eyes and as I hear the rhythmic echo of Shizune's footsteps down the hallway, I remember the words that were said by that person.

_"Please take care of Naruto... please... I beg you Doctor Tsunade... I want this child to survive... no matter what... he is my treasure... my dream... my hope..._

My mouth curved to form a smile and repeated the words I said to that person.

"I will protect him with my life counted on it...Kushina"


	13. Chapter 12: The red eyes

_Sound of dripping...__  
Echoing in my ear drums so loudly..._

_In the dark room... something wasn't right...  
The atmosphere was distorted... suffocating air...  
I could somehow feel it...  
A feeling so unnerving that it takes away the strength to move..._

_Someone comes out of the shadow...  
And then a flash of horrifying blood red eyes and bleeding tears!  
Those eyes didn't belong to a human's... but..._

_but the face was recognisable!_

_"...Sasuke."_

_...the voice was all too familiar!  
It was... it was-!_

* * *

Chapter 12: The red eyes

Sasuke awoke with a start. He gasped for air while his body felt gross with hot, sticky sweat. A cold chill ran down his spine and his hands unconsciously shook to no end.

Giving a few seconds to breathe and calm down, Sasuke let his brain recognise where he was, and the difference between reality and a dream.

_A dream..._

_No, that wasn't a dream... it was a part of a collection of the past memories... _  
One that hadn't been haunting him for the past few years because he had been forgetting about them, time blurring his memories to release him from the past trauma...

But here he was, having the dream once again, and as vivid as he ever remembered.  
The trigger that caused this was...

"...are you okay, Sasuke?"

_...him_.

Sasuke turned around to the source of voice.  
An angel like boy with sun-kissed blond hair, but with bandages wrapped across his eyes which would have originally be in place of azure eyes that make the sky jealous.  
...or was it the beast-like blood red eyes with narrow slit pupils?

"...huh?" Sasuke asked as he still huffed, to calm his heart rate down to usual speed.  
His heat was still thumping madly and he could almost feel the throbbing all the way to his fingertips.

"You were... screaming..." Naruto mumbled, somewhat hesitantly.

"I'm fine... just a nightmare..." Sasuke muttered, but then found Naruto's reaction quite off. Naruto curled up into a ball and cuddled his legs.

_That's right... he'd think its his fault..._ Sasuke thought and cursed himself for his subconscious actions.

"No, um... it's something I have often. Just past traumas. Nothing got to do with you..." Sasuke quickly explained before Naruto got a word of sorry out of his mouth.

Every bad thing that happens to others, Naruto would think it is entirely his fault, even when it has absolutely got nothing to do with him.  
That was how people had treated Naruto, and so naturally he couldn't help but huddle in a corner and try to be as non-existent as possible so he wouldn't be so troublesome.

Or at least that was what Naruto's personal problem was after hearing some of what Naruto had got to say when they had their normal conversations where he would excitedly talk about something and then dramatically drop the mood and start talking about depressing experiences.

He was very moody and had a wide range of expressions to go with his emotions that wasn't balanced out much, due to lack of expressing since he used to keep his feelings all contained inside his heart.

It _was_ Naruto that pulled the trigger back to Sasuke's traumas, but the haunting nightmare itself hadn't got to do anything with Naruto.

Even without the eyes, Sasuke can see the expressions Naruto put upon his face, and he looked mildly surprised after Sasuke's rush of explanation.  
It was because it was probably the first time Sasuke had ever mentioned or even hinted on his reasons for being here and his past.

"I see..." Naruto said with a smile though, not willing to pry further into Sasuke's privacy which had been an avoided subject to both.

Naruto hadn't told Sasuke about himself from fear that he will be looked at differently, be disgusted and become shunned like any others that he had ever met.

Sasuke knew Naruto was a trustful friend enough to share what he had been through in life...  
But he didn't want to burden Naruto with his worries seeing that Naruto was already full to the brim of his worries that if Sasuke hadn't been here, his soul would have been long gone, trapped in the strong cement-hardened façade.

_"...Sasuke."_

Sasuke shivered at the voice that echoed in his mind and shook violently, to and fro.  
He then swung his legs to the side of the bed and hopped off, walking over to Naruto's bed which he sat on instead.  
It was then when Sasuke had looked at Naruto more closely, and he greeted the blond properly.

"Good morning, there."  
A broad smile spreads across the other's face.

"Good morning, Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed ever so energetically, making Sasuke wonder where he had the energy to do so when he had lost so much blood last night.  
Thinking of which, Sasuke made a frown and knitted his brows, remembering flashes of last night's incident.  
He remembered his last thoughts after slipping into the darkness.

_Not you too... please._

'Not you too'? Was I thinking of him too? Was I afraid to lose Naruto...  
Lose Naruto like how I lost _him_?"  
This thought clearly answered my all unasked questions.  
Why I had linked my thoughts with those two, and why my haunting nightmare came to greet me again last night.  
_  
It was the blood red eyes that bleed tears...  
_

"Your eyes okay now...?" Sasuke asked, unsurely.

"It's okay. Doctor Tsunade said she will have a huge operation with my eyes to get them removed," Naruto replies casually.

"Removed?" Nods "_Removed_? Sasuke asked again, not believing his ears.  
He just stares blindly at Naruto in distraught.  
This meant that he could no longer have a glance at those blue jewel hidden eyelids.  
One of the features that Sasuke loved the most...

"No way! Isn't there any other solution to this?" Sasuke asked in panic.

_No... there's no solution for this..._ Sasuke's mind echoes with a voice from the past. Words that he hardly remembered but was now being reminded with a sharp pang of aching pain, striking the brain with each sentence.

_No solution... except to kill me...Sasuke_

Sasuke stared into the face that was in front of him, looking very worried, but not being able to pay attention to anything he was saying, even though he can visibly see his mouth moving. His brain just didn't register his words, but just a certain thought that clung to his head like a huge self-destructing synapses.

The one thought that he suddenly extremely feared to the point that his whole body shook.

_The symptoms of the two are the same...__  
Does that mean that Naruto's disease... is the same as him?_

_Will Naruto end up like Nii-san!_


	14. Chapter 13: Curiosity killed the cat

_The symptoms of the two are the same...__  
__Does that mean that Naruto's disease... is the same as him?_

_Will Naruto end up like Nii-san!_

Chapter 13: Curiosity killed the cat

"Even though you say 'removed', it's not like it's going to hurt because I'll be under anaesthetics," I rush and explain to Sasuke who repeats the question 'removed?' in fear, over and over, "and it's not like I can't live without them because..."

I stop, because Sasuke suddenly starts mumbling other things that clearly tells me that my words aren't getting through to him.

Mumbling something like, "no solution except to kill..."

"NO!" I suddenly find myself shouting, hearing this much.  
Sasuke flinches under my hands which had gripped upon his arms.

"No killing! You can't kill Sasuke! You musn't! _You musn't!_" I cry out loud, terrified at what he had just said.

But soon after, I start hearing chuckles come out of Sasuke's mouth and first I feel confused.  
Then I start to feel my face grow hot in embarrassment, because that laugh is definitely laughing _at_me, although the reason, I don't know.

"It's just... nothing," Sasuke seemed to have wanted to explain, but stops on the first word, as if he has had second thoughts to sharing something with me, "sorry. Just... forget what I said. Okay?"

I nodded, understandingly. If he drops the subject, then I will just have to wait until he feels it's the right time to tell me, or if I'm trustful enough to him to be able to listen to such problems Sasuke is holding within him right now.

_Just like me... just waiting for the right time..._

I want to trust Sasuke... I _do_ trust Sasuke. The one I've truly ever gave my whole trust on, but yet, my weak heart can't hold enough courage to tell him what I have within me.  
If he pushes me away as far as he possible could, it's the same as any other reactions I had been receiving from everybody else. It shouldn't matter if he knows or finds out, yet somehow this became one of my most feared situations...  
The situation when Sasuke finds out everything about me... and then casts me aside... to deny my existence... and take the action of ignoring my existence...

...which will plunge me back into the cold, black pool of loneliness where I will slowly drown and and the 'pain' gnawing at me from the inside until only the solitary emotion is left...

* * *

Naruto was making that face again. I could see it even if I couldn't read his emotions from his reflection of his eyes, but I knew that behind those bandaged eyes, those azure blue eyes would be glassy and reflecting solitude.

Flashbacks of that scene flashed at the back of my mind...  
The time when Naruto had screamed in pure terror, panicking when he found out that Doctor Tsunade was going to reveal everything about him to me.

_"You!" Doctor Tsunade barked at me, "come with me for a second. I have something to sa-"_

_"NO!" Naruto suddenly became fully alert and tried to jump out of bed, screaming, "NO! No! No! No! No! No! NO!"_

_Naruto screamed, tears falling down his cheeks as if he dreaded that it was all over if he stopped struggling now._

I could never forget the face Naruto had expressed upon his scratched cheeks. It was definite that it was the last thing he wanted me to hear.

I felt the trust, and I knew he constantly fears about the truth that lies within him, that he starts shaking uncontrollably when he's swimming deep within his thoughts.

If he himself feared this much about his own body, or whatever he held within him, I had no confidence in hearing it out and staying calm. I didn't have the confidence of not reacting to it and not hurt Naruto's feelings at all.

And the thought that bugged me to no end...  
The link between Naruto and my brother...

_I have to know!_

I suddenly stood up, alerting Naruto as he looked up towards my direction.

"...Sorry, my body feels a bit dull from exhaustion and too much sleep. I'm gonna go walk around for a bit. Is it okay if I leave you here alone for awhile?" I asked hesitantly.

I knew that after last night's traumatic incident, Naruto was quite stiffened up and was afraid of himself. It was probably one of the times that I had to be here for his support, but there was something I just _had_ to find out immediately.  
It was the first priority at that moment and probably all for the best for Naruto as well, even though I would be breaking the promise we made together...

_He'll understand..._

"Yeah, go ahead. I was just thinking of taking a nap myself," Naruto said softly, with a warm, encouraging smile, as if he understood my feelings and how hesitant I was to leave him here, alone at such a time.

"Thanks, I'll be back soon," I replied and walked out the door.

Though just a few minutes ago I had greeted Naruto a "good morning", it was already sunset, not sunrise. But this village had such beautiful sunrise and sunset that both shone beaming colourful sunrays across the village that it was hard to tell which time of day it is.  
Only the long shadows that grew longer as each minute passes by told me that it was sunset.

_I really did sleep much..._I sighed and thumped my dull forehead a few times, and then concentrated on where I was heading to.

Sasuke thumped his dull head a few times before snapping his eyes open, flaring fully with determination. He knew where to go and what to do.  
He went to the library that was in the hospital.

This library was a medical one where the doctors came by to search for the things they needed to know for their specific tasks. It wasn't restricted to anyone particularly, but patients were rare to be seen going into this library.

This was where Sasuke headed, and this was where he went through to the history section, knowing that his generation had a peculiar recessive gene that only appeared within the Uchiha bloodline.

He walked slowly as he let his finger slide through the columns of the cold, dusty, and rarely used thick books that was full of past, major diseases that were printed into the pages of history.

"Ah, found it..."  
His finger stopped short upon the letter 'U', and he pulled out that cold, heavy book out, laying it on the ground.

".ha..." Sasuke slowly spelled out the words until he found the name. His fingers started trembling whether it was from the shivering cold book, or from the nervousness that clumped right down in his stomach. He gulped, and took a shaky breath and then started to read out what was written underneath his surname.

"Uchiha bloodline has a recessive gene that will be expressed in a chance of 1 in 100 people, therefore, it is highly rare to see this gene expressed. Although this gene may from time to time become quite dominant due to a few situations regarding a breakdown of regular metabolism of the hormones. Some of these occasions are also known to have been due to mental breakdown... "

_Mental...breakdown..._

Sasuke sees the figure of his brother losing control, from time to time. Thrashing about before his eyes...  
His mother's tears streaming down her face while she could do nothing to stop his brother...  
_He _could do nothing to stop his brother...

He read on, "...in these cases, it is common to see the iris gush blood down the ruptured micro blood vessels that connect to the eyes. Although the repair is one of the most fastest procedure which is triggered by the anti-recessive gene protein and sends a signal to flush fluid from the lymph to wash out the blood from the eyes to regain the usual colour of the iris. This blood vessel and lymph vessel structures are built only in the Uchiha bloodline who have the recessive gene, and the proteins that go against this procedure..."

_...only in the Uchiha bloodline?_

Sasuke saw flashbacks of his brother's bright red iris that glimmered in a deathly demon red gaze under the moonlight, and then saw Naruto's feared face with a contrasting, piercing blood red stare.

_...but Naruto's pupils were slits...so it's different to ni-sans?_

"...but from this symptoms, and the symptoms mentioned after this, are the ones that people had seen and had feared during the wars over 1000 years ago. It was these symptoms that were feared and was at that time, known to be a curse... a curse of the demon fox.

This disease was named..."  
Sasuke's eyes widened as he whispered out the last three words of the sentence.

"..._the Kyuubi's curse?_"


	15. Chapter 14: The Inari Shrine

_"...but from this symptoms, and the symptoms mentioned after this, are the ones that people had seen and had feared during the wars over 1000 years ago. It was these symptoms that were feared and was at that time, known to be a curse... a curse of the demon fox._

This disease was named...

...the Kyuubi's curse"

Chapter 14: The Inari shrine

His eyes widened at the word: "Kyuubi".  
Even he knew what it was. Anyone in this village would have heard and know of this curse that was the legendary rumour that had spread for generations and generations.  
The fox spirit curse that everybody feared...

Sasuke sat on the dark cold floor, staring at the word in trance as he slips back into the past.

* * *

"Nii-san?" a young Sasuke asks, "why do we have a festival today?"  
Sasuke's brother Itachi looks back at him whom he's pulling along by the hand.

"Because we need to celebrate the Kyuubi fox spirit at the Inari shrine to worship and show him our gratitude for protecting the village," Itachi replies with a smile, looking down at the small, confused raven.

"How do you know if the fox spirit is really protecting the village? It doesn't even exist!" Sasuke exclaims logically with that young smart brain of his, rolling his eyes.

"How do you know it doesn't, Sasuke?" Itachi smiles and patiently treats the broody Sasuke kindly, "well yes, for the last 500 years or so, it has just been a simple festival for the villagers to relax and enjoy... but this festival used to be a ritual for handing a sacrificed child to the fox spirit each year."

"Sacrifice?" Sasuke asks incredulously, his eyes widening.

"Yes, according to legend," Itachi explains, looking away from his brother to pay more mind to where he is going, "or else the great Kyuubi would devour us all."

They are now surrounded by the festival yatai stands with bright lantern lights decorating both sides of the street. The sound of the crowd gets louder and 'personal space' no longer exists as they squeeze past people that move in all directions.

"Ni, nii-san!" Sasuke shouts in panic as their linking hands are now at fingertips.  
Itachi comes back for Sasuke and swiftly picks him up, placing him upon his shoulders, brightening Sasuke's face that had been panic-stricken a few seconds ago.

The spectacular view from above the crowd sparkles Sasuke's eyes as he stares in awe at the clearly visible current of the crowd that creates a colorful streams of a river movement in slow motion, with all the villagers wearing brightly coloured yukata move in the direction they are forced in this packed festival atmosphere.

Sasuke is being captured by the scene from above so much that he momentarily forgets what conversation they had been holding awhile ago.  
Sasuke is brought back to Earth when they finally reach the old grey steps of the stone stairs that leads all the way up to the centre of the festival, the Inari shrine of the Konoha Village.

Itachi lowers the little young raven and takes his hand to guide as they start walking up the stairs.

"So... the sacrifice got devoured for the villagers?" Sasuke asks, resuming to the conversation he had once forgotten, taking huge steps forward to keep up with the smoothly pacing Itachi's footsteps.  
Seeing the little brother puff beside him, Itachi twitches a smile and slows the pace down a notch.

"No... the Kyuubi fox spirit uses the sacrifice as his host to possess him and use the body to eat what it craves for, which is this inari," Itachi continues with his explanation and holds up the inari that picks up at the top of the stairs, where each person is given an inari to offer to the Inari shrine.

"The Kyuubi fox spirit can't eat without a human form?" little Sasuke catches on quickly, as he himself receives an inari from the miko maidens handing out the inari.

"That's correct," Itachi answers as he places an inari on top of a a whole stack of inari that other comers have placed, and placed his hands together to pray.  
Sasuke mimics the action.

The brothers start heading back down the stairs, when Sasuke notices the statue of 'The Great Kyuubi Fox Spirit'.

"9 tails..." Sasuke murmurs, noting the difference between normal fox spirits and their shrines, "why 9?"

"The number of tails reflects upon how powerful the fox spirit is, and this fox spirit is so great that it can cure the any injuries that inflict upon the host's body in a matter of seconds," Itachi replies.

"Really! Then why is there a sacrifice each year? Shouldn't just one body be good enough?" Sasuke asks, his curiosity growing by the second.  
Itachi hesitates, knowing that this question cannot go unanswered.

"Nii-san...?"  
Sasuke looks up unsurely, seeing an expression he had never seen before; reflect upon his older brother's face.  
Itachi would rather keep some things anonymous to Sasuke, because it is still too early for the still pure and innocent raven to hear such stories.

But he knows his little Sasuke so well that when he is curious, he won't stop until he finds out everything he wants to know. He is one stubborn little thing.

Itachi sighs before locking his gaze with Sasuke.

"Because the Kyuubi is too powerful for the human vessel to sustain and the body can't bear it for long," Itachi replies with a frown, not wanting to say anymore than this.

...But the little Uchiha didn't let him.  
The little curious raven dared himself to ask...

"W-what happens then?"

Itachi frowns.

"...the host starts to gain the fox spirit's natural features until the body starts deteriorating...to death."

Sasuke feel his blood freeze as he stares hard at his big brother, whose long black hair softly sways to one side, his front bangs partly covering his solemn face, a face of regret, telling Sasuke about this, although there hadn't been much of a choice here.

"...But there's no such ritual now," Itachi adds with a smile, changing his mood at an instant.  
Sasuke knows as much that he isn't to ask... but the slight glint of sadness and fear reflecting upon his older brother's eyes tells him there is more to the story.  
His brother is far too easy to read for this smart little Uchiha...

"...why did that ritual stop all of a sudden?"

Itachi turns his back upon Sasuke.  
That is something he couldn't tell, even for this stubborn little one.  
This is just one question Itachi in return had to be stubborn to not answer.

_Not yet.  
Sasuke isn't ready for all of this..._

He really does't want to corrupt Sasuke's mind with anymore information than this...  
...but unfortunately for him, luck isn't on his side.

"This symbol...," Sasuke mutters as he points at the symbol underneath the 9 tailed-fox statue that is in a shape he is extremely familiar with, "is the Uchiha symbol...the 'Sharingan'..."

Itachi stops dead on his tracks.  
Sasuke is sharp, and really picks up on things so well.

Although it is to be expected, since even at this age, Sasuke is always looking up at his role model, his big brother, and is always trying to mature as fast as he can.  
He consumes as much as the brain can fill and interpret everything he is given, mastering anything Itachi is able to do.  
The intelligence comes from the genes that Sasuke can never evade from.

"What's the Kyuubi got to do with us, Nii-san...?"

"Sasuke," Itachi sighs, and pulls Sasuke by the hand, forcing him to walk down the stairs again, "the Uchiha clan is seen as the great clan that can control the Kyuubi and have the vessel to control the great powers the Kyuubi. That's why we are one of the most highly respected clan. We are saviours of the village... or so it is rumored."

_Saviours of the village... _Sasuke repeats in his mind, somehow not quite as excited as thought he should be.

Though Itachi puts on a reassuring smile making Sasuke more or less satisfied with the answer he had gotten leaves the conversation at that, following closely behind his big brother looking a bit gloomy.

His juvenile emotions lets him forget about the whole deep darkness consuming story of the spiritual fox of the Kyuubi when Itachi takes him around for games that he challenges upon his little brother.  
Soon Sasuke is filled with sparkles and bubbly feelings from excitement and happiness that he receives from his older brother, forgetting the gloomy feeling from the heavy story.

* * *

It is so much later, in the hospital library, that Sasuke finds out the relation between the Uchiha and the Kyuubi.

_"_The Uchiha were not saviours, but were known to be the cursed clan, isolating our clan far from the actual village where the normal villagers lived," whispers to himself as he reads on a passage in the printed pages," The only time the Uchiha was out of their tiny town which was residential to only the Uchiha's, was only when there was school for the kids to go to. Otherwise, there were shops and stores and everything they needed all in that one town, isolated from everyone else.

_The Uchiha people were the ones with 'The Kyuubi's Curse!'_"


	16. Chapter 15: Emotions from locked heart

_"The Uchiha were not saviours, but were known to be the cursed clan, isolating our clan far from the actual village where the normal villagers lived," whispers to himself as he reads on a passage in the printed pages,"The only time the Uchiha was out of their tiny town which was residential to only the Uchiha's, was only when there was school for the kids to go to. Otherwise, there were shops and stores and everything they needed all in that one town, isolated from everyone else._

_The Uchiha people were the ones with 'The Kyuubi's Curse!'"_

* * *

Chapter 15: Pulling out the emotions from the locked heart

_"Mother, today at school, people were talking about the Kyuubi's Curse. It was rumoured that somebody's going to get cursed this year!"_

"Those are just rumours dear."

"But even adults are rumouring about it!"

"Are you scared that you might be chosen as the sacrifice?"

"..."

"Don't worry. You are strong Sasuke, dear."

"Strong...?"

"Yes, dear."

"If you're strong, do you not get cursed?"

"That is correct."

"Okay! I will be strong!"

'Okay, I will be strong!'  
Those words I had said about 10 years ago echoed in my mind loudly until I came back to my senses, and paragraphs of black printing returning into my vision, right before my eyes.

As I had read on about the Uchiha and the Kyuubi's curse, memories after memories flashed back in my mind, where all the missing puzzle pieces came into place, falling neatly into the missing gaps one after another.  
Pieces that I had never known that were missing until now...

Every word and action came with a reason which I, as a child, couldn't understand at that point, but was able to do so now and ever so clearly that it was actually pushing me down like weights after weights were being loaded upon my back.

Just when I thought I had suddenly become weightless, gravity slammed against my back and I realised I had fallen against my back.  
Looking up, I saw no ceiling of the hospital library but stars coming out from my eyes.  
Slowly I felt the creeping coldness of the floor seep into my body, reaching up to my very inner heart, and freezing me up as I finally felt the cold chain wrapped around my heart with words called life long 'imprisonment' after all these years I've been living unnoticed.  
I was forced to realise that I was imprisoned by this curse all long which was something no had directly told me about.

My mind swirled and I felt nausea crept through my throat while my lungs started to lose its function.

I kept the nauseous feeling in and took in deep breaths as the image of one person stuck clearly at the back of my mind, reminding myself at the situation I was in right now.

_If I start hyperventilating or cause any other symptoms now, he'll find out that something's wrong..._

I forced myself to sit back upright and keep breathing properly as I put a hand against where my pumping heart should be.

_I can't break down here...  
I can't make him fear...  
I can't make him think he's been betrayed!_

I gritted my teeth and my eyes hardened, determined not to let my body crumble as it wishes.

Father's words that he once said, and Naruto's words that he once mumbled accidentally, circled inside my mind continuously like a chant.

_"You are an Uchiha! You have to be strong! Don't disappoint me!"_

"Don't betray me... Sasuke..."

That was the last thing I promised I'll ever do. No matter what, I had made up my mind to support Naruto, and nothing was going to stop me. Not even my mental capacity overload or body health.

_I won't betray you, Naruto..._

...I wont!

* * *

Naruto sighed as he waved his only friend goodbye. Sasuke may not have been able to hide his serious tone completely, or maybe it was that Naruto was very sensitive in detecting that kind of area.  
Nevertheless, he knew something was up. Although if Sasuke was trying to hide it from him, there was nothing to do except act like he hadn't noticed anything.

_"Yeah, go ahead. I was just thinking of taking a nap myself..."_

Naruto had lied. There was no way he could sleep after hearing that noticeable tone Sasuke had when he told him that he had something to do.

It had nothing to do with him. Or he _hoped_ it had nothing to do with him.  
He trusted Sasuke, so he shouldn't worry about anything.  
Yet, it was bugging him.  
This sudden difference Sasuke was showing and right after _that_incident? Was this really just a coincidence? Naruto couldn't help but wonder...

He sighed and rolled over in his bed.  
The room was so quiet and so bare that it reminded Naruto of the continuous days of being all alone before meeting Sasuke.  
He would just lie in bed and do nothing as he just waited for something to happen. Anything.  
Life was so boring that he always wished he was a bird, freely flying to wherever it pleased.

Now that Sasuke was here and came to Naruto's room everyday, he was no longer circulating in the endless loop of boredom, dully waiting for each long day to pass.  
Sasuke was like a light before Naruto's eyes, and he experienced so much happiness that he felt the days were always too short.

_If only the days were much shorter..._ became _if only the days were much longer..._

Although time did not matter to Naruto. He never knew how much days, months or years passed since he came to this hospital, but he was in no rush to find out how much longer he had to stay here.  
The most obvious answer was that he was going to stay here for as long as 'life' was for him.

He had nothing ambitious regarding the outside world, outside the hospital, and with Sasuke beside him, he needed nothing more.

One slight problem was... every night, he was pumping with excitement, knowing that Sasuke was going to come through that sliding door in the morning, casually greeting him with a "good morning".

It was something so obviously natural, yet something Naruto never experienced till now. He didn't know how relaxing and happy it could made him, making him feel like he belonged somewhere and tightly bound with someone.

He would become so excited that he would never be able to get to sleep, ending up sleeping so much later that it was hard for him to wake up earlier than Sasuke ever would.

But as long as exciting bubbles formed within Naruto, so did the water that diluted the detergent which was the main ingredient to create the bubbles.  
The fear kept pouring out of Naruto's heart like a puncture right in the middle of it, making him _not forget who he was_.  
As long as he knew who he was, he was constantly reminded that if Sasuke discovers Naruto's true colours that he very well hid, he would definitely reject the connection formed between Naruto and him, disposing him out from his life and mind.  
Naruto will lose his light, and will be plunged back into the suffocating darkness.

The very thought of that made Naruto's body shake all over which was almost always noticeable to Sasuke and he would then place his warm hands against the shaking shoulders and comfort him, reassuring him that he was still here right beside him.

_"I'm still here, Naruto. I'll always be beside you."_

How or why Sasuke came to be so close or caring so much more than himself, was unknown, but Sasuke felt it fate to be supporting and protecting Naruto with his leisure and ability.

The more he felt happiness, the more he felt fear. It was ridiculous and it made Naruto's hollow laughter fill the cold, solitary room.

And then there was the operation coming up. He was scared.  
Of course he was scared. For all he knew, he should be panicking and balling his eyes out of fear the moment he was told that his eyeballs were actually going to get removed.

_Maybe I really am weird... I'm not normal..._

To not fear about his body, to panic and scream at the status he was in with the curse and all.  
It was all such a crazy fact that he held all to himself that made him question himself why he was existing in the first place and what purpose was there for him to stay alive.

To feel the hatred, for the fate was forced upon...

_Why me? Why me? Why me? WHY ME!_

To be scared to live or die and continuously break down from the life given that has no escape route...

_Somebody please help me... I don't want this..._

Or to lose his mind to the extent of beyond repair...

_Hahahahahaha! Damn the curse! Damn everybody! Damn the world!_

None of it. Naruto did not fit in any of these descriptions and just quietly lived in solitude like a soft wind that was unnoticeable through daily life of any other people living in this world with him right now.

He was bottling his emotions so well, kept them hidden so well... so well that he forgot how to take them out and express them.

But Sasuke had pulled them out, bringing out the emotion of happiness... but along with fear.  
Naruto was still not used to expressing emotions, but now, all alone in the very room he lived almost his whole life in; he suddenly felt emptiness and the fear sweep through him.

_He was mortified._

Tears started sliding down from his tightly closed eyes which he failed to keep them contained and his body started reacting to the fear as well, shaking him uncontrollably.  
Quiet sobs escaped his lips which was left unheard.

"I'm scared Sasuke... help me..." Naruto choked out to the empty room.

_"Help me, Sasuke..."_

* * *

Footsteps approach ever so quietly and I instantly know who it is. No one can step in so quietly as him... my only friend.  
I open my eyes.

"...Sasuke?" I croak with my voice thick with sleep.

"Hey... I'm back," Sasuke says softly.  
Apparently I had fallen asleep.

"...were you... crying?" Sasuke's concerned voice registers boldly in my mind and I quickly rub my eyes, realising there are tear stains that probably glimmered in the moonlight or something. Well, rubbing my cheeks to exact since my eyes are wrapped around bandages that had been put there last night.  
Even with my eyes covered, I know that it's already dark outside. If the sunset rays still streaked into the room, I would've seen red, the colour of the back of my eyelids.

_Night...?_

"You...took long," I comment.  
That's all I can think of to say.

"Uh, yea..." Sasuke's hesitant voice replies.  
Something's wrong, _really_ wrong.  
I feel the familiar fear rise in my chest, slowly squeezing my heart into suffocation.

_What if Sasuke found out...?_

"I... just was doing some research...," Sasuke explains, "and that took me quite awhile..."  
My heart thumps so wildly and so loudly against my ears that I can barely hear the quiet words Sasuke produces from his mouth.

"W-well... did you find what you looked for t-then?" I manage to stutter.

"Yeah, I guess..." Sasuke sighs sasually, but there is evident hesitance and fear creeping behind the words.  
My heart nearly stops at his reply.

Just as I thought everything is over...

_It's all over..._

But then Sasuke announces something I never had expected to hear.

"I found out the true reason why I live here..."


	17. Chapter 16: Two pieces of a puzzle

_Just as I thought everything was over, Sasuke spoke next, something I never expected to hear._

_"I found out the true reason why I live here..."_

Chapter 16: Two pieces of a puzzle

"...what?" Naruto asked.  
I knew I was here because I was protected by the hospital from Itachi, who was insane and out on the loose.  
I knew that Itachi was the murderer of my family and was a dangerous person still out there and who might be plotting to murder me next.

But I never knew the reasons for all this. I only just assumed that everything was how it was just as it was seen visibly to my eyes.  
That Itachi suddenly became insane and had become a murder.  
But come to think of it, it was weird that that kind, nice, strong and reliable Itachi who loved his parents and me, all of a sudden became very violent without reason.

And those words...

_Never be like me, Sasuke... Be strong... Understand?_

I always used to nod at those words and said I understood what he said. But I hadn't understood anything until now...

The hospital wasn't only protecting me from Itachi, but was also monitoring me, so I won't end up like him.

"We... are both here by fate... I think," I mumbled more to myself than Naruto, but I earned a chuckle from the blond in bed.

"So you're stuck here for life too?" Naruto asked without thinking.  
He had just told a part of his lethal disease about how it was incurable and he would be bound to this hospital until his death greets him at the end of his bed. But before Naruto got to think about what he said and panic, I let out a breath of laughter too.

"That may be the case..."  
Confined in this old hospital for life didn't seem plausible, but with this blond around, I thought it wasn't too bad.  
It wasn't like I had a choice anyway.

"Shove over a bit," I said as I push Naruto slightly to one side of the bed, and I forcefully make space next to him to lie next to him.

"W-whaaah! What are you doing, Sasuke!" he shouted loudly next to my ear in shock, making me scrunch my face from the blaring resonance his voice made in my mind.

"Don't scream in my ear, idiot!" I said, rolling to my side, facing my back towards the panicking blond.  
With too much information piling in my brain, I felt extremely tired all of a sudden and I decided to stay here for the night.  
It made me wonder if I had actually gone back to my room from now, I would've made it to the top floor. It was more likely that I would collapse somewhere in the corridor of this ward or the stairs.  
That's how much sleep I required immediately.

And although there was a huge amount of questions and confusion swirling in my mind unresolved, I found it best to sleep for now.  
Plus, they say that your brain organises information within your mind when you are asleep.

I couldn't even find the strength to open my mouth to say goodnight and I was gone.

* * *

Sasuke suddenly lay beside me in bed and I panicked. I felt my heart racing and my face grow hot from embarrassment.

_Do friends normally do this!_

"W-whaaah! What are you doing, Sasuke!" I screamed and he groaned at the volume.

"Don't scream in my ear, idiot!" he growled as he shifted some more.

"B-bbbut S-SSSasuke? W-wwwwhy are you sleeping in my bed?" I managed to stammer.

"...coz there's only one bed here," I managed to vaguely make out as Sasuke seemed to be half unconscious already.  
I wondered what he had been doing... 'his business' he had to do, was that something that would wear down his stamina to this extent?

As quickly as Sasuke had lain beside me, I heard the soft even breathing, telling me he was already asleep.

"...Sasuke?"

No reply.

_Yup, he's asleep..._ I thought to myself and let out a deep sigh.  
_Well there's nothing I can do now..._

I reached out to grab the extra blanket on the bottom end of the bed and draped it over Sasuke, since he went to sleep over the duvet, while I was under it, making it impossible to have us both covered under the same duvet.

"...good night, Sasuke," I said quietly before rolling over to one side, facing away from Sasuke.

* * *

_Although the thin duvet separated the two, on the small narrow bed, the two pressed their backs closely together, sharing the warmth and the connection that was bound to get stronger after this._

* * *

It's the day that I had decided upon Naruto's surgery. Although I had many years of experience with a lot of surgeries, I still feel my body shaking all over.

"Get a grip of yourself!" I mutter to myself fiercely.  
I clasp my shaking hands tightly in front of me as I keep it against the cool desk.  
The clock ticks loudly above me and it doesn't help my nerves calm down at all and I grit my teeth, annoyed.

_Please, someone smash that clock!_

If I am allowed to smash it myself, I will gladly offer to do so, but as I seem to have a bad habit of breaking a lot of the hospital property, it isn't the brightest idea to go ahead and also smash the clock.  
Even as a head doctor of this hospital, there are things I'm not allowed to do, and smashing clocks isn't one to be crushed, apparently.

Funnily enough, clocks are much more important than walls that I put my fist through every few weeks according to the nurses in the offices, and they keep reminding me each time they see me, to break anything _but_ the clock.  
If the hospital had more money to spend on things other than the patients, the first thing I'd buy is a digital clock that won't keep ticking so loudly into my mind.

Finally, I stand up with a clack of my heels. I start storming up the steps loudly, as if that makes me less nervous, but I'm at my limit.

_I don't care if the boy isn't awake yet.__  
__I am going to wake him up and start the surgery before I start going insane!_

A sleepless night is mind-racking and I really don't need to have a restless day to top up that.

When I see the door to the boy's room, I flick a strand of my long hair back and grab the doorknob.

What I see makes my eyes widen in surprise, and true enough, so does my mouth. I'm sure I look like a real bizarre lady standing at the doorway of a patient's room, gawking at the scene displayed before her, but no one is there to see so the thought never registers my mind.

Beside Naruto, in bed, is the raven brat.  
They both sleep soundlessly and so peacefully that it is like one brilliant artwork of a perfect pair, devil and angel, asleep and neutralised by each other in truce.

Soon my lower jaw comes back up to meet my upper, and I feel the edges of my lips slip upward.

I quietly close the door and walk back down the corridor, while holding onto my heels that I had taken off to mute my footsteps, knowing better not to wake the two kids.

It's evident that those two are going to have a hard and rocky road ahead of them with mind heart pouring moments, but as long as they have each other, those two, especially Naruto, is going to be okay.

The brat _did _have the ability to support the boy and I begin to believe in those words.

_I made up my mind that Naruto is my friend, and I won't ever change that fact, no matter what there is to come at us ahead!"_

I smirk as my whole body gets released from the tension that had been building up throughout the night.  
Stretching my arms above my head, I consider taking a nap before the two brats wake up for surgery time.

_Okay, brat. I'll leave him completely in your hands..._


	18. Chapter 17: Ittekimasu: I'm off

Chapter 17: Ittekimasu ~I'm off~

The beam of the sunlight penetrates through my eyelids making me squint and bring me back to consciousness from a relatively nice dream that hadn't visited me for many years now, although once I stir awake, my memories of the dream vanish without a trace.

I try to rub my eyes, but find that they are wrapped in thick bandages which remind me of what lies ahead of me today.

"Oh yeah..." I murmur under my breath.  
Then I suddenly feel some movement and realise that right before me, underneath the duvet, is a presence.

I get shock to the extreme that I try to emit a scream that never comes out, but instead, replaced by only short gasping sounds.

More rustling sounds come from under the duvet and then a thick, drowsy voice comes from the lips that still seem to disapprove the movement of it.

"'mornin..."

I try to respond but it's like my heart is stuck in my throat and I can't even manage to express how shocked I am, until my heart freezes in shock for a different reason.

"_!_"

An ear-splitting scream comes from Sasuke...

From the quiet words spoken by Naruto, I stir awake.  
Just managing to turn around in bed to face the voice heard, I peel one eye towards the currently shocked blond, making my lips curve into a small smile before splitting it to open my mouth to greet him.

My tongue still opposes to movement and I close my eyes as I try to produce a voice that comes out as a lousy greeting, but satisfy with it for the time being.

When I gather the energy to tiredly open my heavy eyelids again, I see Naruto further shocked, opening and closing his mouth like a fish, making me grin.  
But the grin soon turns into a grim frown as I feel a dull migraine creeping up on me.  
My heavy hand travels up to my head to clutch the side of it as if searching for the origin of the mild headache, but finding none, I try to remember what had happened last night.

_Where did I bump my head last night...?_

Because I know well that I hadn't drunken any alcohol last night to even have a hangover...  
As I try to activate my sleeping memory cells, my migraine starts worsening.  
As if it's preventing me from making me remember something.

_Do I even want to remember what happened...?_

Just as I think that, all the information from yesterday comes rushing back into my head like I had pulled a trigger for self destruction.

So many heavy memories after memories stack on top of each other, crushing my mind and I feel the searing pain that seems like it's going to crack open my skull in two, any moment now.

Tears start falling down one after another as I scream at the unwanted guest filling my brain that is clearly giving me a warning alert that my brain is suffering from information overload.

From somewhere far away, I think I hear Naruto's voice and I follow it, sprinting towards it as if I'm scared that if I lose the sound of that voice, I will never be able to get out of where I am right now.

"...suke, ...s-suke?"

_No...No..._

"...ske...ke..."

_No..! Don't go away!_

The sound of the voice becomes fainter and fainter, giving me a rise of sheer panic, rushing my blood throughout my body, screaming to move faster.

_I need to get to him... I really need to get to him!_

I keep moving my legs forward, the light betraying me and moving away with Naruto's voice.

_...wait! Naruto... Naruto...!_

"NARUTO!"

Sasuke wakes up with a start for the second time, but this time being wide awake.

_Huh! Waking up?_

He then realises that he had fallen unconscious again to be woken up, not by Naruto, but by an unknown person.

"_He_is not here..." the blurring vision of a nurse reflects in his eyes as she replies to his outburst, also seeing the slight disturbed touch to her facial feature when she had mentioned 'he' which refers to Naruto.

The clearer his vision becomes, the more menacing his glare becomes towards the nurse as he distinguishes the nurse as another that doesn't forgive Naruto's existence.  
So much darkness consumes around him that makes the nurse back away as soon as the I.V. is set up.

Wasting this nurse's efforts, Sasuke rips the receptors that stuck into his arm and he starts staggering towards the door that leads out to the corridor.

"W-wait! Uchiha-sama!" the nurse cries in panic but the mad raven pays no attention to her.

Looking around, he figures that he's back in his room, the floor above Naruto's and he rushes down the stairs, sensing something off. As he jogs over, the activated body jogs over his memories as well and reminds him that today is the day that Naruto is operating on his eyes.

Cold blood running down his veins, Sasuke sprints down the corridor of the blond's ward and slams the door open to find who he is hoping to find... but isn't there.

_No..._

He then notices a white paper sitting nicely upon the cleanly made bed as if it had been waiting patiently for the raven.  
He picks it up, almost making him bring a smile to his lips at the messy writing that he recognises belongs to the blond's, although he had never seen Naruto's writing before.

_**Good morning, Sasuke.**_

I hope you are okay.  
I will do operation today.  
Wish me luck

Naruto

Reading the small letter twice, Sasuke's brows rise.  
Such plain, childish-like wordings but more than that, Sasuke feels shock to see this piece of letter as if it saying casually 'Hi, I will be back later' and nothing more.

"...Naruto?"

I panicked when Sasuke started screaming in agony. I didn't know what to do and my eyes watered. I tried calling his name repeatedly as my hands reached out to his shoulders, but he didn't seem to register my voice or touch. I pressed onto the nurse call and just hoped the doctor was nice enough to rush over as soon as soon could ever be.

It hurt to hear Sasuke screaming in pain that resonated right down to the core of my heart. I started to hear loud clacking of footsteps rushing down the corridor towards this room.

"H-help Sasuke! He's in pain!" I screamed.

After an hour later, I heard that Sasuke was put to sleep and calmed with some sort of anaesthetics to go along with his pain that he had been holding. I don't know why he had suddenly become like that, but I assumed it was from something related to "I found out the true reason why I live here".

His scream that reached the core of my heart reminded me of when I was screaming in agony too just a few days ago.

_I must've been like this, and Sasuke must've felt so scared, helpless and felt the pain too..._

"Naruto. It's time for your operation," I heard doctor's words from behind me.  
I turned around and asked her for a pencil and a piece of paper.

_If I was Sasuke... What would I want...?_

I remembered the evident panic I heard in Sasuke's tone of voice when he heard that I was going to get my eyes removed. He was, to describe exactly, horrified.

_Then I will have to write a message that won't pressure on him..._

Truth be told, I was terrified. The operation and all, but I didn't want to write anything like that to Sasuke who would be anxiously waiting for me to get the operation done.  
I wanted to sound as if I was just out and will be back soon.  
It's no big of a deal... just like going out to get a drink of coffee. I will be back soon... that kind of feeling.

_I wonder if Sasuke will get my message..._

I never learnt how to write properly, so I knew my wordings were childish, but all the better, because this will sound less serious, just like how I want it.

I managed to force a small smile and leave a couple of words that hang in the air, with the white paper upon my bed that Sasuke was bound to find, before following the doctor out of the room.

"Sasuke... _Ittekimasu_..."


	19. Chapter 18: Okaeri: Welcome Back

_**Good morning, Sasuke.**_

_**I hope you are okay.**__**  
**__**I will do operation today.**__**  
**__**Wish me luck**_

_**Naruto**_

* * *

Chapter 18: Okaeri~Welcome back~

For how long I had been sitting on the cold, bare bed alone like that, all hunched up and deep in thought, I don't know, but it sure seemed like eternity.  
I guess, like always, the person waiting for an operation to end is the one to be the most anxious for a long period time than the ones who are actually receiving the operation.

It's these kinds of times I hate the most.  
The waiting...  
And also the anxiety while waiting while the negative thoughts arise in many different scenarios that might happen. It's not like I want to predict the worst, but my mind just replays many outcomes I might have to face by itself, against my will.  
It's probably trauma.  
The past experiences are the reason for my brain to automatically foresee the worst outcomes as I had countless depressing moments for waiting...

The soft padding of a single pair of footsteps comes nearer and I feel the tension I had building on my shoulders relax.  
After hearing the door slide, I slowly turn around to the one I've been waiting for...  
And there he was, standing there solid and true to my expectations.

"...I'm back, Sasuke," he whispers when I walk up to him.  
I hear the slight quiver in his voice, and my lips slightly bend upward.

"Okaeri..." I reply, and then to that, he gives me a huge beaming smile.  
I see the slightly visible pair of dents where his eyes should have been, and to be honest, it is a bit disturbing, especially when I think about what they look like behind those bandages. And to know that the once beautiful set of azure blue eyes is no longer there is a downfall to my feelings. But more than anything, I feel the happiness and relief that he's back and okay.

As if the visual isn't enough, without thinking, I feel myself reach out for Naruto and embrace him feeling him in my arms and right here with me. Not a hallucination.

"...Sasuke?" Naruto asks unsurely as I fall back into another flashback of the previous day where I had been searching through the thick book of records about the Kyuubi's Curse.

* * *

"_The Uchiha were not saviours, but were known to be the cursed clan, isolating our clan far from the actual village where the normal villagers lived. The only time the Uchiha was out of their tiny town which was residential to only the Uchiha's, was only when there was school for the kids to go to. Otherwise, there were shops and stores and everything they needed all in that one town, isolated from everyone else_."

Sasuke skim read through the pages of the information on his clan and the curse.

_...the Uchiha's were nevertheless highly respected for their ability to control the Kyuubi, and from the fear of what they could do if in punishment if they were disrespected..._

_...though scientifically researched to find that Uchiha's mechanism of control was just that they did not carry two of the recessive gene of this disease..._

_...those with the recessive genes expressed, the symptoms arose only at the puberty stage and the disease grew along with the body..._

_...those who had the Kyuubi's curse could not control themselves and eventually lost their sanity attacking anything or anyone in sight..._

_...no such cures a found for this disease yet with our present knowledge..._

"No... cure?" Sasuke moistened his dry lips as he then repeated words that he heard years ago, "...no solution... 'no solution except to kill'..."

_"There is no solution for this, except to kill me, Sasuke..."  
"...W-what're you saying...Nii-san..."  
"When you're ready, come and find me... and kill me!"_

"Nii-san... were you scared of losing yourself...?"  
Lost in thought, buried in many memories, Sasuke faded away into them for along time.  
When he suddenly clicked back to reality, it was too dark to read.

He stood up and searched for an emergency torch that he caught a glimpse of when he came in earlier, hanging by the wall.  
Turning on the lights of this room was no option, because he didn't want to attract any attention for people to figure out that he was here in a restricted zone.

Clicking on the light, Sasuke read on.

_According to the past researches, many experiments were tested upon people by transferring the Uchiha's recessive genes, but finding out that it was lethal to people other than the Uchiha's with a reason still unknown, the experiment was considered forbidden..._

Sasuke flicked on to the next page, not knowing yet what the pages ahead were going to state and shock him to no ends.

_But regardless of the forbidden laws, a researcher named Dr. Orochimaru apparently secretly continued on the research, using many sacrifices to obtain results for his researches._

_He had found in his researches that the people who had the Uchiha blood transfused would show the regular symptoms of the disease immediately, and gradually worsen like the Uchiha's who carry double the recessive gene, except in a normal person's body, the gene known to be the Kyuubi's curse becomes a dominant gene._

_Moreover, unlike the Uchiha's, the normal people do not have the capability of controlling the gene expressed in their bodies, and a major side affect of deteriorating organs occur rapidly._

_While Uchiha somehow has the anti-genes to prevent them from any organ deterioration, the others will start undergoing a self-destructing procedure, slowly losing all the functions of the body and eventually leading to death._

_From the years of research and finding no cure for this symptom, the Uchiha blood became a lethal weapon and was used for assassination by the ones who opposed the 4th leader Hokage of the village._

_Not knowing about the affects of the lethal gene that was known to only a handful of people working for Orochimaru in the first place, the 4th Hokage, Namikaze Minato had created an F1 generation for the Kyuubi's curse for the first time in scientific history._  
_So presently, the very first example of an F1 generation of the curse exists. The son of Namikaze Minato and Kushina Uzumaki._

"... Uzumak!" Sasuke choked on his words at the name.

_"…Uzumaki."_

_"What?"_

_"Uzumaki."_

_"A whirling vortex?"_

_"...my name"_

_"Your...name?"_

_"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."_

_"...Naruto"_

_"You don't need to remember it..."_

"Naruto..." Sasuke whispered as his eyes cracked wide open while he felt all the blood in his body freeze from the most violent impact he had ever received in his life.  
All air escaped his body and he forgot to how to breathe.  
Once he gasped for oxygen, he then re-read the previous few passages again with a pounding heart that seemed so loud in his ears that he could hardly hear his own voice.

"..._unlike the Uchiha's, the normal people are do not have the capability of controlling the gene expressed in their bodies..._  
_...major side affect of deteriorating organs occur rapidly..._  
_...start undergoing a self-destructing procedure, slowly losing all the functions of the body and... eventually leading... to.._."

He wasn't able to finish the last sentence as he now knew who this was referring to.

_Finding no cure for this symptom..._

His heart thudded so violently that it felt like each heart beat gave a whole vibrating impact upon the rest of his body except his face where all blood drained, making him paler than he already was as if life had been sucked out of him ironical to the rest of the pulsating body.

Taking a huge breath in attempt to calm himself and extensively failing at that, he forced to read the rest of what the records had to say about Naruto after reminding himself of the words his mother used to give him.

_Don't worry. You are strong Sasuke, dear._

Stay strong. Stay strong. Sasuke repeated in his mind.

_Records:  
The child born blind with a few scratches across the cheeks that are presumed to have originated from pharyngeal slits that had failed to disappear due to the mutational affects of the gene of the Kyuubi's curse.  
Side affects of dark map-like rash appear on the surface of the abdomen centring from the belly button a few years after birth.  
Bodily health unstable, and anything deterioration is expected to happen at any time.  
No signs of losing sanity.  
The brain seems to be the one place that is fully unaffected._

_Future notes:_  
_Expect any dysfunction of organs, disability of limbs, blood-filling in eyes and especially rupture of blood._  
_Most organ deterioration is critical._  
_First signs will be losing the 5 senses._  
_Next will be losing the function of muscles, and finally the organs will dysfunction till his death._  
_Expect mortality period to be less than 20 years._

_Note that these symptoms may not go accordingly in order._  
_Probable that any sudden deaths may occur._

Sasuke totally lost the confidence of being able to act normal in front of Naruto, and support him.  
Was he even able to do anything to help support Naruto?  
He was faced by the biggest fear that there was death awaiting his friend, _and he could do absolutely nothing about it_.

* * *

_I had only wanted to prepare myself for when Naruto was going to trust me enough to tell me about himself...  
_

_But I had ended up biting off more than I could chew...__  
__...or even fit in my mouth._


	20. Chapter 19: The blind truth

_...losing the function of muscles, and finally the organs will dysfunction till his death...__  
__...Expect mortality period to be less than 20 years..._

_...Note that these symptoms may not go accordingly in order...__  
__...Probable that any sudden deaths may occur..._

_... Finding no cure for this symptom..._

_...presently, the very first example of an F1 generation of the curse was born...__  
__...The son of Namikaze Minato and Kushina Uzumaki..._

_"My name is Uzumaki Naruto."_

Chapter 19: The blind truth

"...I'm back, Sasuke," I manage to whisper after walking up to him.  
I'm really scared of how Sasuke is going to react, but I stand tall and wait for whatever is to come.

"_Okaeri..._"

A soft, relieved reply comes from the other and my heart lifts as if there's zero gravity acting upon it. If I didn't know what happiness felt like, I sure do now and it doesn't prevent me from my lips widening into a bright beam of smile.

_I knew it! I knew Sasuke wouldn't leave me!_ I keep shouting inwardly, although in truth, I had been mortified until that word had come out of Sasuke's mouth.  
I don't know what my appearance is like, since I can't see it for myself, but Sasuke not grossing out by my sight is something to be really relieved about. When he had heard about the operation, he had flipped and seemed horrified at that, but he seems to take it in so calmly right now.  
Just as I think about how grateful I am to have such a friend, I feel warm arms wrap around me, and then I feel a body pressed against mine, feeling the body warmth of the other's seep through to mine.

Somehow it doesn't feel awkward or embarrassing. Maybe it's because of the way Sasuke is holding me. The arms lightly wrap around me but his fingertips are firm and grasping me as if he's making sure he's feeling me... feeling that I'm right here.  
The slight desperation...

"...Sasuke?" I ask in worry as he stands still without a word, just embracing me.

_He's...shaking..._  
And somehow the warmth Sasuke is giving me confirms that it's not out of disgust towards me.

"Sasuke, you're shaking," I state quietly and reach my hands up and around his back too.  
As if Sasuke snaps out of trance, he jerks, and then slightly apologises.  
Before I get to ask what he's apologising for, he lets out a breathy, shaky laugh and states that I'm shaking too.

_I'm shaking too...?_

I didn't realise. It's probably from relief.

"And you know... you're sweating a little," Sasuke comments at my slightly dampened back, "did you run on your way here?"

"Ah, no...," I answer as I take a step back from him, facing where is face should be, with a grin, "I power-walked."

"I'm amazed," Sasuke replies in a mildly surprised tone, but not as shocked as I thought he would be, so I "stare" at him until I hear him walking away from me, towards where the window should be and I follow him too.

"But I guess it doesn't matter whether you have eyes or not, bandaged or not...right?" Sasuke continues and his voice doesn't directly amplify over towards me, knowing he isn't looking my way.

"...When did you realise?" I whisper in shock.

"That you were blind?" Sasuke asks back, this time facing directly at me while he speaks. These are the kind of features I'm more sensitive to since I lack sight.

"...probably when your eye-colour changed, I think," Sasuke vaguely replies as he directs his voice upwards in thought.

When I wait for an explanation for that, I suddenly feel hands on my shoulders that push me slowly backward to my bed.  
Hinting on the gesture I take a seat, and I feel Sasuke seat himself beside me.

"It's weird to say... but somehow your red eyes looked more alive than your blue ones... and that made me realise how glassy your blue eyes looked, as if they only reflected only what it's actually seeing... no emotions... just reflection...," if you get what I mean, Sasuke adds after that and gives out a dry laugh.

I sort of get him and sort of don't, but I keep silent anyway because Sasuke is very talkative today. It's not an everyday thing to be able to listen to Sasuke's lovely voice for quite a long period.

"And then I thought back to when we first met..." he continues.

_Must be about half a year ago now..._I think, but I keep mute, not wanting to interrupt.

"When I first bumped into you... I offered you a helping hand, but you ignored it," Sasuke chuckles as he tells me this.

"Y-You did?" I ask in shock, not knowing that Sasuke had been different to others from the very start. Even with that attitude...

_Tch! Watch where you're going, dobe!_

He had been the first to actually try and help me. If it had been anyone else, they would have completely ignored my existence, and yet Sasuke is telling me now that he hadn't been that way from the very start and I feel so much gratitude building up inside me.

"Well... I thought you had ignored me...so..."

"So you clicked your tongue at me!" I point out with a chuckle and I feel Sasuke join me.

"And when I first went into your room... that one was always nagging me at the back of my head..." Sasuke mutters as if to himself, rather than to me but nevertheless, I don't recall what had happened.

"You said 'who?'."

"What...?"

"You remembered who I was since I met you at the rooftop in the morning...but when I first stepped into your room, you asked me 'who?'..." Sasuke explains which then brings loose a part of my memories from my memory storage.

"Ah..." I say, that had been the only thing I could come up with to respond.

* * *

"Ah..." he says and tells me that he now recalls that day.  
I wonder if it hadn't been a significant day for him, like how I feel? Because I won't ever forget the day I met Naruto. It had probably been one of the best and memorable days I have ever had through all these years till now.

"And a lot more things like stumbling from time to time, missing your steps, your lack of response to visuals, weak limbs..." I continue.

"Weak limbs haven't got to do anything with blindness though..." Naruto points out and my spine runs cold.

_Sh-t..._

I hadn't meant to say that. Yes it isn't because of blindness, but a symptom of his disease... Something I know about and shouldn't have knowledge of...

"I... guess. So you have something other than blindness that causes limbs to weaken then. That must be tough," I try to bluff and I know Naruto will fall for it because he's so dull into picking things up like this. A good thing is that he is blind because even though I bluffed, I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from making a shocked face expression.

"..."  
Naruto doesn't answer, and reply and it makes me nervous, until he finally opens his mouth to speak.

"Sasuke... you know what?" he asks in a bare whisper.  
I see him visually trembling and I put a hand upon his shoulder, hoping It would calm his feelings a little.

"Yeah, what?" I murmur quietly.

He opens his mouth to speak, but then closes again on second thought. He repeats this a few times before finally giving me chilling words that makes my heart freeze.

"_...I'm probably going to die soon._"


	21. Chapter 20: Hearts can strike

_"Sasuke... you know what?"_

_"Yeah, what?" I murmur quietly._

_"...I'm probably going to die soon."_

* * *

Chapter 20: Looks can't kill, but hearts can strike

I start hearing a chuckle and I frown in confusion. It had taken me a lot of courage to talk to him about myself and what I have burdened upon me but Sasuke is laughing away at that.  
I know he's not one to betray me, hurt my feelings or laugh at me sadistically...  
So_...why is he laughing?_

"What kind of joke is that?" Sasuke asks after his chuckle subsides a little, "definitely not the kind to say when you're hospitalised."

_Oh...okay. He thought it was a joke..._

It feels a little disappointing and relieving at the same time. My message isn't getting through when I'm finally trying to talk to him about myself, but taking it as a joke means I still have a second chance, like an escape route for me to back away from talking to Sasuke about myself...

_But no... I can't keep running away like this_ I think, and build up my courage once again.  
But just as I open my mouth to speak, Sasuke starts talking.

* * *

_"...I'm probably going to die soon."_

I nearly choke on myself when I hear those words come out of Naruto's mouth.  
I shouldn't be saying this, but I am just so grateful that he's blind right now, because my face would have been such a great give away.  
The silence strangles my throat but even when I open my mouth to respond, nothing comes out of it and I'm lost for words.  
When I realise that I had been holding my breath, I let the air out of my lungs in a shaky breath. That's when my voice lets out a breathy laugh for some reason.  
Losing my control of my emotions, I start laughing uncontrollably.

_Maybe I'm going insane..._

Too much information was overloading my brain, way over the capacity for me to be able to comprehend and understand. But they just keep building up in my mind like one flick of snowball creating an avalanche, burying me deep within the cold, heavy snow.

It's too heavy.  
It's too suffocating.  
It's burying me alive.

_Maybe... it's easier for me to give myself up... and just let myself become insane..._I start to think, but my eyes don't miss Naruto's shaking hands that is put upon his lap.

_No... If I give up here, that will be betraying Naruto...__  
__I need to stay strong..._

I _need_ to stay strong...  
_I_need to stay by Naruto's side.

I control my laughter, and then come up with something to say to relieve the tension Naruto is slowly building upon himself before he crushes himself with it, "what kind of joke is that? Definitely not the kind to say when you're hospitalised..."

I know he had build up so much courage to say this, but I'm not just quite ready to handle the violent turbulence that will rack my life till it shatters.

_Just...just not yet...__  
__I need just a bit more time... only just a little bit..._

Naruto keeps mute, and I can't really see what he's feeling. He's hiding his emotions under that unemotional mask again that he excels at putting on.

I give up trying to read his face and face outside the window where the light greyish clouds neatly pastes itself over the wide sky, not letting out a speck of blue show anywhere. It's not a stormy and gloomy grey, but it won't show me any bits of the blue sky that hides behind those clouds, reminding me of something I lost...

"You know what? I really loved your eyes..." I mutter.

_Like they'd clear anything tainted, compared to my eyes that are just coal black, as if it'll consume everything into the darkness._

_I'm like a living shadow with black hair, black eyes and pale, lifeless skin...__  
__In contrast, you have clear azure blue eyes with warm coloured skin and rosy cheeks when you blush... they're always full of life._

"But when I found out that you couldn't see... I actually felt a little relieved... and happy almost...funny, don't you think?"  
Naruto looks this way with his mouth slightly agape. He doesn't understand me at all and that's understandable, so I continue on with a slight smile forming on my lips.

"Because for all this time you had been with me, you never judged me by the looks when everybody else had been," I narrow my eyes and relax my face as I feel how much I appreciation I had towards Naruto," even if I tell them to scram, glare at them or tell them to piss off they would just follow me around like some superstar. Just because of my looks. It was really annoying. Everybody was annoying. But... knowing that you were blind, I realised that it meant that you probably would have become my friend even if I was ugly."

"Are you boasting that you're hot?" Naruto chuckles at me, "some confidence you got there."  
I don't reply by laugh with him, knowing that it's just a joke.

_We're joking around and laughing like usual. That's good.__  
__That's how it should be..._

* * *

"You always used to stare right into my eyes... so I thought you could not just see me, but see through me. See everything. The inside too... so it _was_shocking to know that you couldn't see anything," Sasuke murmurs after slumping back onto my bed and follow his suit.

I can tell, by his tone, that he wasn't taking that fact that I was blind, a negative thing. His previous comment is an appreciation towards me, but it's the biggest praise I had ever gotten from anyone, so my heart is about to burst from happiness.

"So it's probably going to shock me if I could ever have the ability to see..." I reply, chuckling again.  
It's impossible to see for me. But now I wish... just a little... to be able to see Sasuke's face. Because I had always been wondering how his facial features would be like. How softly he would express his face when talking to me.

I extend my hand towards Sasuke's face.  
When I feel the soft cheeks of his, I feel him flinch in surprise.

"Oh, um...s-sorry..." I apologise in as I pull my hand back, "I just...wanted to feel it...because I can't...s-"

Before I get to finish my sentence, I feel my halfway-retracting hand being stopped by another. Sasuke's hand that had grasped my hand encourages slowly towards him until I once again feel his soft cheeks, double cupping his face with mine and his over top.

"I don't mind," Sasuke says softly, and by his tone, I can tell that he's smiling.  
I blush at how soft his face is as I trace my thumb along his face down to his smiling lips and true enough, it's curling upwards.

He removes his hand from mine and says go for it, so I hesitantly slide my hands across his smooth features and feel the outline of his eyes, nose, mouth... and create an image in my head to try and make up more visually of what Sasuke would look like visually.

Even with touch, I see what he means by him having good facial features. His jaws have a nice curve and a sharp edge to the chin, his nose points out so smoothly off his face and his cheek so smooth that it dips in at the slight pressure of my fingers.  
His facial proportions are like a master piece of perfection, that almost makes me burn with jealousy.

Maybe because of that, I had my face express something, because the next thing, I twitch in surprise from the touch upon my cheek.  
Sasuke's feathery fingers play across my cheeks.

"...N-no!"  
I feel myself flinch away from those fingers, a little afraid.  
Afraid that he is touching me... me who is supposed to be dirty and ugly and infectious...

"Y-You shouldn't... touch me..." I stammer. I know my voice is shaky and I hate myself for that. I really liked his touch and I miss it now that it's gone.  
But no, I'm a gross existence. I'm ugly. I'm not even supposed to be alive.  
Since I got to feel and know how perfect Sasuke is, I feel more reluctant for him to near me with such affection.

_Such a good looking person shouldn't be touching a filth like me..._

"What kind of bullsh*t are you trying to pull at?" Sasuke then says, as if he reads my mind. He probably knows what I'm thinking. He's so good at reading minds, probably by reading my face expression... That's why when I truly want to hide my emotions; I force myself to put my guard up and become expressionless just like I had in the past. But recently it's hard to do so without thinking. It's off autopilot now, which is becoming highly inconvenient for me...

"Have you ever seen your face before?" Sasuke continues as he sighs, and I feel his fingertips again.  
I pull back but his fingers follows and push my cheek back to face his way before cupping his soft delicate hands upon my roughened up, scarred cheeks.  
The comparison is embarrassingly different and I feel ashamed of my face.

"Don't feel ashamed. You're not half-bad to look at too," Sasuke tells me, once again, reading my face expression or mind, whichever the one he does.  
I doubt his words, but his next words make me pout.

"You don't trust me? Do I ever lie to you, Naruto?"  
That's a mean question to ask at this kind of situation. Yes. Of course he won't, but he could still tell me a false encourage out of kindness.  
Everybody had been spitting words at me as if I am a monster, so how could Sasuke come up to me and be the only one saying I'm not half-bad to look at?

_I just can't understand..._

"Well?" Sasuke asks.

"...no" I mutter quietly.

"You should credit yourself more. You are much better more than half of the people out there. And moreover, your heart is truly beautiful, and that's the main component that make of what you look like," Sasuke says.  
These words truly mean something to me.

I feel the warmth from these words, and I feel myself relax into his touch.

_Maybe it's okay... if it's just a little... if it's just...__  
__Just Sasuke.._

I feel myself form a smile, and with my great ability to remember important things, I had forgotten what I had been planning to tell him.  
But for now, I let it stay forgotten for the next perfect moment I can try to create...  
And next time, I will properly confess it...

And I feel that somehow Sasuke will understand me...


	22. Chapter 21: The identity

Chapter 21: The identity

I close my eyes and feel Naruto's bed so comforting that I wish I could just sink into the soft mattress and never come up again.  
But I'm brought back to reality in a split second when I feel a touch on my cheek and jerk in surprise.

"Oh, um...s-sorry..." Naruto apologises in panic as he retracts his hand, looking slightly frightened and guilty.  
I hadn't minded. It had just been a little surprising, just that.  
And I didn't want him to feel that what he did was something I feel disgusted about, so while he's still muttering something in apology, I quickly grab a hold of his hand and pull it back towards my cheek.

"If you can't see me, feel me. If you want to know about me, ask me. If you want me to stay by your side, tell me. I will never leave you. I promise..."

A knightly phrase comes out of my mouth as it automatically mouths my thoughts while I cup his bandaged face.  
It isn't something I had intended to say as it sounds a bit soapy, but I don't bother to retract them, since true enough they are exactly how I feel and want to do.

Naruto looks like he's about to burst into tears any time soon, although he just barely manages to cover it with his usual smile. I then wonder if he even has tears after his surgical operation with his eyes.

I kind of understand why he's so hesitant about another person touching him. He had been shunned by the public and naturally, he is reluctant into accepting himself too. It's arduous for him to accept his existence even if I am here to acknowledge and accept him for who he is.

"I trust you Sasuke..." Naruto shyly mutters after awhile, and it brings my lips to lift at the edges as I shift my hand up to his hair to ruffle it.

* * *

A couple of weeks have passed since my surgery for removing my eyes.  
Sasuke will leave much earlier at the end of the day, saying he had a little searching to do, but he will be back the next morning, right at my side when I wake up.

"Morning, Naruto."

I look up blindly towards the source of voice and open my mouth to greet back, when I feel something put upon my shoulders.

"...eh?"

The warm woollen material gets wrapped around my neck and I raise my hand to touch it.

"It's a hand-knitted scarf. I thought I should give you one since it's a bit cold recently."

True enough to Sasuke's words, the freezing mid-winter weather is slowly creeping its way towards us and the mornings had become more and more chilling.

"...you knit scarves?"

I hear a groan.

"You've got to be kidding me! You think I'm the type to sit down using my precious life time to knit away like an old grandma?"

I chuckle at his over-exaggerated response as I try to imagine Sasuke doing just that.

"So... a gift?"

Sasuke sighs and tells me about how he had gotten the scarf amongst many other things.  
If I ask him why, he tells me that it's because today is a day where apparently girls give gifts to the person they love.

I feel something press upon my lips, trying to make its way into my mouth.  
Reluctantly, I open my mouth to let it in, and then find myself tasting the sweetness of the melting substance... chocolate.

"Chocolate is their main present. They call it Valentines Day," Sasuke explains and then sighs, "but I hate this day because I hate receiving all these gifts and most of all, I distaste sweet things, especially chocolate."

"Y-you hate _chocolate?_" I gulp and then stutter at Sasuke in disbelief.  
I didn't think there'd ever be a person who would hate chocolate, but here he is saying he doesn't eat chocolate.

"Well you seem to have an overly high affection for chocolate," Sasuke remarks with a chuckle.  
When I retort that _everybody_ loves chocolate, unless their alienated, Sasuke laughs at me, shaking the bed.  
And then he says something my ears can hardly believe.

"_REALLY?_" I shout and I hear his soft laughter again.

"Yes, really. You can eat all of my chocolate for me," he says as he stands up off the bed, "I'll go bring all of them down then."

I try my aim to grab a hold of Sasuke's arm as soon as I feel him acting to leave, and I score a goal as I feel Sasuke's sleeve in my hand.  
Presumably feeling my tug, Sasuke asks me what's up.

"...Can we go up to the rooftop first?"

I feel Sasuke ruffle my hair which is recently becoming his habit, and agrees to go up to the rooftop together.

I lower my legs onto the ice cold floor and feel myself shiver.  
It's cold but I don't have any footwear, so nothing can be done there.  
I feel a gown thrust towards me and I put it on before Sasuke makes me sits back down on the bed again.

"Huh?"  
I then feel something slip upon my feet.

"I stole these slippers from the hospital storage again, just like the gown," Sasuke says with a tone that suggests that he's smirking and it makes me grin too.

"Sneaky Sasuke~!"

"Right?" Sasuke replies knowingly and then pulls me upon my feet again.

"Let's go."

* * *

When we reach the rooftop, I feel the chilling cold wind freeze my cheeks but then I feel it warm up again when I feel really warm hands placed upon them.

"...Sasuke?"

I look up to where Sasuke's face should be.

"It's colder than I thought. Are you okay with this? Shall we go back?" Sasuke asks in concern.

I don't know why, but recently Sasuke is really protective over me and worries a lot about me as if I'm fragile enough to become shattered by small things.  
Whether or not this is due to my lack of sight, I somehow feel the oddness about his change in personality.

"I'm okay, Sasuke," I reply and though it is comfortably warm, I pull his hands away from me so he can tuck them away from the freezing cold air.  
I walk right up to where the fence should be, right at the edges of the roof of the hospital.  
I feel Sasuke stay closely behind, and then stand beside me.

"The day I first saw you, I saw you here from outside the hospital," Sasuke starts talking.  
I look his way and listen intently.

"You looked imprisoned and you looked depressed, eager to get out of that place. I thought I was seeing a reflection of myself."

"A reflection... of you?" I repeat his words.  
I had never thought Sasuke and I would be similar in any way.  
I had thought no one was similar in comparison to me.

"..."

Something inside me tugs at me, and I decide to dig it out, thinking this is the moment I should bring it out. I face Sasuke and speak up.

"Sasuke, I need to tell you something important... and I need you to take it in seriously."

The ice cold wind blows hard against my ears and the rush of wind is really loud, but I hear Sasuke's breathy words nevertheless.

"Yea... what is it?"

I take a deep breath and open my mouth.

_Here goes everything and nothing_...

"I have an incurable disease, and I won't live long."  
A long silence follows.  
I don't hear any reply from Sasuke.

Well of course he's speechless.  
It's not something someone says from time to time casually, 'Oh, hi! You know what? I better say my goodbye to you, you know? Cause I apparently don't have much time left to live.'

I turn my head back to the fence, and touch the cold metal loops of the fence that tangle neatly in a pattern.  
Yes... cold, metal wire. That's what the material is that's framing my inner self too.  
I'm bound to this fate. There's no way out.

_No freedom..._

"You know what?" I shakily say as my grip on the fence tightens.  
I start to feel myself shiver as flashes of my past flickers at the back of my mind.

"I've attempted to commit suicide a lot... I've jumped off from here too... That's why there's a fence here now..."

_I wonder what kind of face Sasuke is wearing right now..._

"But I couldn't die... my body is weird... it fixes on its own... like internally and externally..."

_He must be horrified..._

"Even if people normally die from the attempts I made, I didn't...couldn't..."

_I'm so glad I can't see his face right now... I wouldn't even have to see him running away from me... That would be painful..._

"Seeing my recovery, people didn't think it was a miracle... they thought I was a _monster_..."

_He probably thinks so too, now..._

"Everybody feared me and was disgusted with me...because I wasn't normal..."

_I'm not normal... Sasuke... but would you still look at me the same?_

"I'm not... normal... Sasuke..."

_But would you still treat me the same?_

"My body breaks down at it's own pace... slowly destroying me..."

_I don't have much time left to live..._

"And I don't have the same life span as normal people..."

_...but will you still... stay by my side...till the end?_

"I'm different... I'm...  
..._I'm not human_."

_Sasuke... I'm not the same as you... I'm-_

I feel something wet drip down my cheeks.  
The wind is a bit calmer now, and I catch a whiff of the scent the wind carries.  
The smell of blood...

_Are my eyes... bleeding tears...?_

"I'm... a _monster_..."

_There... I said it. I said everything. Now it's all ov-_

"Okay."

I feel my heart stop at the word as I deceive my ears.  
But Sasuke's shaky voice repeats itself.

"Okay, I got it."

_'I got it'...?_

I don't get it. I don't understand what he's saying.

"...what?"

"I got it... I understand. It's okay."  
I then feel a warm body press against mine as arms wrap around me tightly.

"It's okay. It's okay, Naruto. I got it."

Sasuke just keeps repeating that over and over again as his body heat and his warm heart transfers into my body, into my heart.  
I feel as if the puppet strings that had been attached to me snap all at once, bringing me down and give myself to Sasuke, who supports me and keeps me in his securing arms.

I can't do anything but helplessly hold onto Sasuke as my uncontrollable tears just keep flowing.

_Sasuke..._

* * *

_Everything somehow seemed so copasetic then, like an end of an episode.__  
__But I felt unnerving to know what was there ahead of us.__  
__It was already tragedy followed by tragedy and the more I dug in to fully understand what situation I was in, it was deeply heart sinking._

_Thinking that you're digging to find some sort of treasure, ends up making you realise that you're only just digging to create your grave._

_What an utter failure of life..._

_It makes you wonder what purpose you have for existing.__  
__Questioning your life, meant you're in an endless maze that you can never get out of, and you're constantly driven to insanity because of it like watching a black and white swirl before your eyes over and over, dizzying yourself into nausea or migraine._

_Please... someone..._

_...make it all stop!_


	23. Chapter 22: Blood and Ink

_Everything __somehow __seemed __so __copacetic __then, __like __an __end __of __an __episode.__  
__But __I __felt __unnerving __to __know __what __was __there __ahead __of __us.__  
__It __was __already __tragedy __followed __by __tragedy __and __the __more __I __dug __in __to __fully __understand __what __situation __I __was __in, __it __was __deeply __heart __sinking._

_Thinking __that __you're __digging __to __find __some __sort __of __treasure, __ends __up __making __you __realise __that __you're __only __just __digging __to __create __your __grave._

_What __an __utter __failure __of __life..._

_It __makes __you __wonder __what __purpose __you __have __for __existing.__  
__Questioning __your __life, __meant __you're __in __an __endless __maze __that __you __can __never __get __out __of, __and __you're __constantly __driven __to __insanity __because __of __it __like __watching __a __black __and __white __swirl __before __your __eyes __over __and __over, __dizzying __yourself __into __nausea __or __migraine._

_Please...__someone..._

_...make __it __all __stop!_

* * *

Chapter 22: Blood and ink

* * *

"I'm... a monster..."

When Naruto whispers these words, I feel my heart shrink into a tight space that is way too small for it, making it a painful and a most uncomfortable experience ever.

Just those words seem to drip with so much agony and despair Naruto feels right now, right at this moment.  
I can't begin to imagine how hard it must be for Naruto to come out and verbalize this and I know very well, that there isn't an option for seconds in avoiding this time.  
Naruto is at his limit and I can see that.  
His bleeding tears don't scare me the least, even if it weren't for Naruto, I'd find it disturbing.  
In fact, those tears are the one thing that displays not just his hopeless life he has to cling onto, but all the emotions that are scarring him, deteriorating him too... making his emotions constantly _bleed_.

But I can't find any words to return to him...

_I __know...__I __know __that __if __I __don't __speak..._

The longer I don't say something...

...his heart is going to fall deeper and deeper, becoming swallowed into a motionless cold sea of ink.

Just like a small steel box, buoyant from the air inside...  
But when the air finds its way out by the smallest gaps at the edges and starts escaping...  
It will make the steel box sink further and further into the consuming deep, darkness where the penetrating light on the other side of the surface of the black ink is no longer within reach at such depth...

No air... to be supported against the dragging force of gravity or darkness...whichever it is...

No oxygen... to be able to keep breathing as pressure builds up, making the heart race and lungs bursting...

_No...__Naruto __can't __have __that __anymore! __He __can't __sink __anymore!_

I dip my hand into the dark sea of ink, disturbing the black surface, reaching out for the small steel box that neatly fits into my palm as my fingers curl round it securely.

...or I wish I have.  
I almost feel it, but I'm not quite sure if it's real or not...

"Okay."

It's stupid. Out of all the things I could have said, that's the only word that comes out of my mouth.

_Okay, __what? __Okay __with __what?_

"Okay, I got it."

Still. Only simple words of 'Yes, I understand what you're saying'.

"It's okay. It's okay, Naruto. I got it."

My mind just only finds these words and I can't help but just repeat these words over and over as I express my emotions in action due to the shameful mouth that can only stupidly repeat the vague, simple, adolescent choice of words like a dumb parrot.

I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. My fingers just find its way round Naruto's back, and hold so tightly that I start to worry if he might become crushed altogether.

_Naruto..._

* * *

When I return to my bedroom to get changed, a full view of nurses awaits me at the door.

_I __really __don't __want __to __go __though __them..._I think and turn my back to start heading back towards Naruto's ward, but I find myself sighing deeply when I hear my name being repeated a few times by several different voices.

They start dragging me towards my room and shove some pink decorative and fluffy things at me until one screams.

"Oh my goodness! You're bleeding!"  
Apparently, she had touched my left shoulder where the blood isn't really visible due to my dark shirt.

Then the worrying voices follow that sound more irritating than anything in this world at this precise moment being.

"No, this blood isn't mine. It's Naruto's," I grunt, trying to get out of their gluing grasp, replying to one of their questions.  
To that, all the nurses step away from me by a meter.  
The feeling of trying to move forward through a really sticky, gluey cobweb suddenly becomes undone and I become instantly free.

Hatred boils within me when they look at my shoulder as if it's highly viral and repulsive. I can feel their repugnant stare enough to know a bit of how Naruto feels all the time. But I keep the urge to punch each one of them across their pretty faces and for now be satisfied with getting rid of the nurses' touches, almost making me consider if I should wear this shirt the whole time from now.

Discarding my stupid thought, slightly shaking my head, I get changed.  
Half way through slipping my arms into the new shirt, I feel myself staring at the damp, very slightly darkened area where Naruto's bleeding tears had soaked onto.

I can even smell a whiff of the iron-like stench of blood from where I stand...  
And I remember Naruto's expression he had worn...

I had felt extremely helpless...when I had looked at Naruto's hopeless expression...  
...but I know I can't do anything.

_I __feel __absolutely...__hopeless_.

Is there really nothing I can do?  
That's what I had thought so that's why I had been researching recently upon the disease Naruto had, and if any explanation of how to help him...  
But since he's the first case of this disease, there is nothing about it.

_Of course..._

So I then had looked up on about the Uchiha.  
Not much can be done as far as the records say, but during the reading, I had become aware of a slight vague thought inside my mind that had me on my nerves.

Before returning back to Naruto's ward, I decide to quickly see Doctor Tsunade to confirm a few things.

I quickly shove my shirt on me before rushing down the corridor where the nurses seemed to have left, and move down the stairs.  
On the way, I glance at the pink pieces of gunk on the ground outside my room in disgust, but then find myself slightly smirking as I imagine what kind of reaction Naruto would make if I give him all of these.

I reach Doctor Tsunade's office and knock on the door.

"Come in!" I scream as I already feel irritated with the visitor who bangs my door so loudly.  
I hear the door open then close, and without a word, a hand slams onto my desk.  
I finally stop my hand that had been scribbling notes, and glare up to the most annoying brat of all.

"_How_ can I be at your service, _brat!_" I snap at him, but I notice the seriousness in his eyes that look straight into mine, and I feel something is coming up. Something big.

"Some Uchiha members are immune to the Kyuubi's Curse, right?"

I snap my eyes wide open at the question which shouldn't have come from this brat.

"_How __do __you __know __about __that __disease!_"

"Just answer me!" the brat urges.  
I take a deep breath and calm myself, while I lower my gaze to my twiddling thumbs upon my desk, wondering how this brat came to know about the disease that had been kept a secret from him.

"Well, yes. That's true," I decide to answer truthfully.

"That means there's something in our blood that's resistant to the symptoms, right?" the brat presses.  
I sigh, not knowing where this is headed to at all, but nevertheless nod.

"And I heard that the blood of an Uchiha is lethal to people other than our clan?"

_How __much __does __this __brat __know, __for __goodness __sake!_

"Yes, that is true."

"But..."

For the first time, I hear hesitance in the brat's voice and I look up to face his face again, but within the hesitance, I see some fire of determination burning within those coal black eyes.

"But I heard that there was a case... where an eye-transplant succeeded..."

_The __Uchiha __Obito __and __Kakashi __Hatake's __case...__I __presume._

"Well... yes, I suppose. What are you getting at here?"

"Is it possible..."  
My body freezes at the next question.

"_Is __it __possible __to __transplant __my __eyes __into __Naruto?_"


	24. Chapter 23: Today is that day

_"Is it possible to transplant my eyes into Naruto?"_

* * *

Chapter 23: Today is that day...

* * *

"_OH! MY! GOD~!_"

The hospital shakes with Naruto's scream of excitement.  
Sasuke picks back up all the pink-wrapped chocolates off the floor since he _had_ to cover his ears for its sake or else he was sure he would've gone deaf.  
Sasuke now attempts to pick them back up off the floor with his weak hands, shaking from laughter.  
He takes a glance towards Naruto who is now opening his mouth and shut like a fish, making him give up trying to pick up the presents and instead hold his stomach that's giving him cramps.

Naruto's reaction is _much_ better than Sasuke had expected.  
But the truth is that he had dropped what he held from the unexpected shock in the first place that Naruto had been able to tell the amount of chocolate he had bought from apparently the smell.

They say that if you lose one sense, another sense gets exceptionally sensitive, and _boy_, Naruto's sensitivity of smell is exceedingly _unbelievable_.

"I'm quite sensitive to smell originally when it comes to food!" Naruto explains as he starts unwrapping the insufficient bits of pink plastic off the sweet lovable chocolate that Naruto intuitively loves from the very bottom of his soul.  
He gobbles them up without a break, like an unstoppable chocolate-eating machine.

Sasuke spreads a soft smile across his lips as he extends his arm to Naruto's face and wipes off a smudge of chocolate off his cheek.  
Naruto finally stops and turns scarlet in embarrassment.

"Um...Sasuke...?" he then turns around to face Sasuke, draining the blood away from the surface of his cheeks.

"Yeah?"

"What were you doing before you came here?"

The concerning tone makes Sasuke brow rise in confusion until Naruto's hand extends towards Sasuke's neck.

"...just like I thought...," Naruto murmurs with a slight frown, "I smelt blood..."  
His fingers trace the bandage that had been wrapped around Sasuke's neck and Naruto is sure that Sasuke hadn't had that a couple of hours ago.  
Naruto feels a warm hand gently covering up his and guiding it away from the bandage.

"You don't need to worry. It's nothing," Sasuke assures, but Naruto has doubts and has one thought occur in his mind.

"...did you do that...yourself?" Naruto whispers.  
Sasuke's expression might have been a give away because his face freezes into one that expresses shock and guilt.  
Hearing no reply, Naruto starts to feel anxious and start his wild mind running towards the other end of a conclusion.

"You hadn't been attempting to commit suicide were you!" Naruto blurts out, quite seriously.  
Sasuke's eyes widen in shock at that, but then he starts shaking with laughter after being worried about how far Naruto might be guessing what Sasuke is up to.  
Naruto becomes stupefied at the response he receives from Sasuke, and then becomes quite concerned since recently Sasuke is acting weirdly.

Becoming quiet one time, then talkative the next, sleeps in his bed, then wakes up screaming his lungs out the next day. Not to mention going off somewhere every day to do something he wishes to keep private.  
Naruto now sees an injured Sasuke who is laughing when questioned about it.

He didn't know what's going on at all!

"...Sasuke?"

"I told you, Naruto. It's okay," Sasuke's warm, gentle voice rings.

In the end, Naruto doesn't get to hear the reason for Sasuke's peculiar neck injury, but every morning like usual, he wakes up with Sasuke right beside him to greet him.

"Ohayo, Naruto."

Naruto smiles his usual genuine smile.

"Ohayo."

Almost eight months had already passed after I first asked Tsunade about transplanting my eyes in to Naruto's.

She still refuses to give me an approval for the surgery, even though she had admitted that it_is_possible.

Apparently, with Naruto's recovery rate, there is a higher percentage of succeeding that operation, but the problem is that _I'm_ not dead, so to take eyes off a live person is almost impossible.  
Note the word _almost_, which is exactly the words Tsunade had quoted.

Within these eight months, Naruto had started having a few organ dysfunctions and his muscles had started to weaken.  
Luckily, Tsunade finally agreed, after many arguments and screaming and debates, to transfuse some of my blood into Naruto which really had some good affects, slightly changing Tsunade's decision towards the 'eye transplant' option that I had come up with.

Finding out that I can actually do something to help Naruto's condition is a very pleasing fact, making me feel less helpless because being able to do something about his condition had been my wish that I had wanted to achieve more than anything after meeting Naruto.

I'm so infatuated with Naruto right now that he's the only thing occupying my mind all day.  
Anything to make him happy, anything to make his condition better...  
Those are the only things that functions in my mind nowadays...

"It's too cold! Close the window, Sasuke."

I slide the window open and look back towards where the spikey blond hair pokes out of the heavy blankets.

"You've got enough blankets already. Stop complaining. You need fresh air," I retort back at him with a growl.

He still seems to be weary about his existence ever since after he found my neck bandaged that day.  
Every second day he would ask me if I needed some time off taking care of him and have some time for myself.  
I'm quite indulged into what I am doing right now, so my reply is always along the lines of 'you must be joking', waving it off.

Turning back towards the scenery from throughout the window, I let a sigh escape my lips.  
The winter wind _is_ a bit chilly, even with the long sleeves, but the air is so clear and refreshing.  
I look at the golden sunset and the Konoha Village that is dipped in that warm dye.  
The trees are green, the dirt is brown, the concrete is dirty grey and the buildings are faded yet come in a wide range of colours.  
The hospital is white and my hands are pale, the spikey sun poking out from underneath the blankets is the colour of a sun-kissed blond.

_I'll never forget such beautiful colours... I'll never forget it..._

"...suke."  
The voice comes from underneath the blankets and I waver away my drowsy thoughts.

"Yeah, what?" I ask calmly, not expressing my startled self.

"..."  
I raise my eyebrow at his silence and I move away from the window, over towards the lump of blankets.

* * *

"Naruto?"

I hear Sasuke calling my name, much closer than before.  
He seems to have come closer to me and I slightly get more nervous as I hide beneath the blankets and curl up.

"Do you... do you know what day it is today...?" I ask hesitantly.

"...no, why?"

A short quick answer comes back.

"I don't usually keep myself up-to-date with days and dates," Sasuke adds after that, perhaps thinking he had been too abrupt.

"...oh."

That's the only thing that comes out of my mouth.

I then snuggle deeper into the warm and comfortable blankets, away from the chilling winter air until I get disturbed by one bomb.

"OUT OF BED, NARUTO!"

I cringe at the loud voice and slowly lift the covers, or else it will get ripped off from me by the boisterous old hag.

"Wh~y?" I whine, poking my head out of the cosy warm bomb shelter, _really_ tempting to _not_get out of it.

"You have another check up surgery," Doctor Tsunade barks and I groan.  
I _hate_ these check up surgeries.  
It's a surgery where they open me up and see if everything is regulating properly. Apparently they had to do this the 'physical' way, since no screenings are available for me to be used upon...

_Well... I should be grateful that they are actually giving me a place to stay and patch me up once a month... I guess._

I sigh and say farewell to my dear pile of blankets and promised to return as soon as I could before following the clacking footsteps of Doctor Tsunade's heels.

I hear the ever so quiet padding of a pair of footsteps beside me.

_Sasuke's._

"Man, I'm so fed up with these monthly checks~," I casually say to him while leaning my head back on my bent arms.

"I would be too, if it were me," Sasuke chuckles and agrees with my thoughts.  
But he doesn't know that I don't really dislike the monthly check up surgeries anymore, and that's because I know that someone is waiting for me after each operation.

Out there, waiting for my return...  
Someone who _cares_that I'll return back safely without any damages...

I wobble at my steps and I immediately feel warm hands against both my arms, supporting my balance.

"You okay?" Sasuke asks.  
I feel myself smile broadly.

"Yeah, after that last medication, I'm slowly starting to get my strength back. Those ones really worked! I wonder what it was, ae, Sasuke? Do you know?" I reply excitedly.

The last few weeks I had a bit of trouble trying to walk on my two feet as I had kept stumbling over and over again.  
Sasuke had been there most of the time to catch me before I fall, but sometimes he misses the timing and we both end up on the floor, mostly with me on top of him because he always makes sure that I won't on the ground and injure myself.  
I fall a lot and I had been pushed down to the ground a lot too, so I don't know why Sasuke is being so careful with handling me, as if I'm something fragile.

"No, I don't," Sasuke replies.

"Che~, you're useless even if you have vision, Sasuke! Make use of them!" I complain jokingly and Sasuke starts retorting back at me and we have an argument, chuckling together and have it all casual.

I really like these times the best, the duration of walking over to the surgical rooms while Sasuke is there to support me and to laugh with me, because if I had been alone, I would have been shaken every time.

Sasuke is my stabilizer.

"Well... I'll see you when I get back then," I reply when I hear the sound of the echoing heels stop, signalling that we've reached our destination.

"Yeah... see you on the other end," Sasuke replies, and he ruffles my hair.  
I brush it away, knowing that he's teasing me, making me smirk.

I turn away from him and raise a hand one last time.

The smell of medical chemicals and tools hits my nostrils as I walk up to the bed at the centre which I know the position of so well after coming here for the umpteenth time.

I feel a needle prick and then the drowsiness overtakes me into a deep darkness of a colourless world.

* * *

When I come to, I hear Doctor Tsunade sigh deeply and announce that it's all done.  
I thank her as usual and start walking by myself, back up to my wonderful, wonderful cosy and warm bed.

As I start walking, I feel something's a bit off.  
Not know what it is, I just quickly head back towards my room where Sasuke _should_be there, waiting for me.

_What's this nerve-racking feeling that I'm feeling?_

I don't know why but I start panicking and rush down the corridor which is highly dangerous for me because...

WHACK!

...I wouldn't be able to control my sense of knowing the placements of my surroundings.  
I rub my forehead and curse the wall that shouldn't be there according to my senses that are failing at the moment.

_I was running STRAIGHT! So how'd this happen!_ I growl to myself inwardly and pick myself up.  
But the hit actually makes me calm down a bit and I slow down and start _walking_ back towards my room.  
I lost how many doors I had passed, so I run my hands along the doors, sliding my finger across the number plates, to figure which room I'm passing by.

At last I find my room, and I open it.

"Okaeri, Naruto."  
I hear Sasuke's usual greeting and find nothing unusual.  
I sigh in relief and greet back casually.

"Tadaima!"  
And then I feel my lips weaken at the sides, loosening my smile in a bit of disappointment.

_Sasuke wouldn't know... of course... what was I expecting?_

I can't help but let my smile slip from my face, and Sasuke is probably going to ask what's wrong... but... that's not how I had wanted it to be...  
It's not-

I feel Sasuke's body heat right up to mine as I feel his arms come round my head.  
My heart skips a beat as I think that he's going to give me a hug, knowingly.  
...but unfortunately not.

And then I get _really _confused.

"W-what are you doing?" I ask startled as he starts pulling my bandages off my head.  
Sasuke doesn't reply and just keeps unwrapping.

"H-Hey, wha-?"  
I try to stop him and grasp blindly at the last bit of bandage that comes off my eyes and a full blast of colour comes into my vision.

_WHAT THE HELL!_

Too startled to speak, my heart is about to explode in shock and I forget how to breathe.  
I try to figure what's going on and look up to try to get a reason for all of this... and then I see a guy standing right in front of me.  
A guy with jet black hair and a pale, smooth face. His lips are forming a small smile while the most noticeable feature is the bandage that is wrapped around _where his eyes should be_.

"Wha...S-Sasuke...?" I wheeze out, trying to make my heart function again because it seems to have frozen every bit of my body, including my mind.  
The vision became a full blast of colour, but my mind instead, became blank white in turn.  
Sasuke chuckles at me and nod.  
And then those lips start moving to give me a special message that I will never forget.

"Happy Birthday, Naruto."


	25. Chapter 24: The other perspective

_"Happy Birthday, Naruto."_

* * *

Chapter 24: The other perspective

* * *

_About a month has already passed after the huge event. I don't know whether to say this result was one that was expected or not...  
If I was in Naruto's shoes, I might've done the same... or maybe not take it as well as he did...  
So I don't and won't regret what I did..._

* * *

Sasuke ruffled Naruto's hair one last time, imprinting that slightly embarrassed goofy smirk he gave so radiantly, before they both parted to go their own ways.  
Naruto walked blindly towards his operation room as casually as his normal, daily day could be, not knowing that this day was the day that was going to change his life 180 degrees, and never go back upright again.  
Dampened echoes of quiet padding footsteps moved towards another operating room, which belonged to Sasuke's, who had contrasting emotions to the blond's.  
His heart was ramming and his hands were clammy.  
The only thing he could hear vibrating his hear drums was the loud beating of his own heart as if 4 speakers from every corner of the operation room boomed aloud his thumping heart.

_He _was the one who requested the operation, and he desired this the most, yet it was the most nervous experience he was ever going to have and his body won't hesitate to show that.

He was starting to see illusions created by his mind, betraying him and keeping him locked up in a dimension of utter darkness.  
In the centre of the darkness was an enlarged, violently thumping heart that wracked against a silver cage bound with thick chains that rattled each time the heart thumped, syncing along with Sasuke's.  
The rattling chains ring lowly, emphasizing how metallically heavy it was, adding weight to Sasuke's heart that was starting to sink, taking his body with him...

A touch to the shoulder threw him right back to Earth in a split second and he whipped round to see a very concerned looking head doctor.

If Doctor Tsunade was there, it meant that Naruto was put to sleep and the double operation was ready to go.

"...are you sure you're okay with this, brat?" Tsunade hesitantly asked.  
Previously she had asked this question so many times that Sasuke had threatened never to ask it again.  
It wasn't so much that Tsunade was in a position to be threatened or was inferior to the cocky raven in any way, but after agreeing to this preposterous operation he came up with, she had no right to ask him anymore.

"...yeah, I'm fine," Sasuke just muttered with a sigh, moving towards the operating bed.

"But... you don't look too good," Tsunade commented with a dispute look.  
Sasuke's eyes rolled at that.

"Well I wouldn't exactly call this an invitation to a funky disco party," Sasuke snidely remarked, "especially with only an old granny around."

"I'll make yo-!" Tsunade closed her mouth sharply stopping herself from saying inappropriate comments in the situation they were in where there were no room for jokes.

She retracted her index finger that pointed towards the raven, to the back of her head to scratch it irritably, still not satisfied with the situation she was put in by this prodigious boy.

"Sensei..." Sasuke murmured.  
Shocked to hear the raven formally address her for the first time, Tsunade snapped her eyes towards him.

"...if I die... can you tell Narut-"

"YOU. WILL. NOT. DIE!"  
A shocked raven was faced with an extremely infuriated expression of Doctor Tsunade's as she screamed directly at him as if each word pounded square in the face.

"YOU HEAR ME! I WILL _NOT _LET THAT HAPPEN!"

"O-Okay...!" Sasuke managed to gasp, his heart now pounding with a different reason.  
His front of his long-sleeved shirt was then released, freeing him from a choking sensation, allowing him to breathe out the oxygen that was trapped in his lungs.

"I won't let this operation fail. So don't talk about stupid things and just trust me!" Tsunade demanded with a firm, but much toned down voice.

Sasuke then showed his rare smile to the doctor, surprising her enough to widen her eyes.

"I will...then."  
Those were the last words Sasuke said before he closed his eyes, ready for the coming operation.  
Staring at the boy lying down with still a slight curve upon his lips, Tsunade saw that he had fully given his trust to her that his face showed absolutely no distortion and his body wasn't shaking like before.

_I will definitely make this operation succeed! You take my word for it brat..._

And with that, the operation was done, removing the Uchiha's eyes to have them surgically implanted into Naruto.

* * *

When I came to, it seemed that Tsunade was doing the second part of the operation and a nurse was there to watch over me.  
She listened to my request and took me to Naruto's room in a wheelchair since I wasn't as well oriented without sight, like the blond he knew.

I then waited alone, waiting for Naruto's return with an extremely nerve breaking emotion.  
It was a swirl of nervousness, fear, excitement and whatever else came with this quirky feeling.  
I was unconscious for a good few hours so Naruto was bound to finish soon and I just hoped that it will be _very_soon, or else I was going to drown again into another dimension.

A huge thump came from the corridor and I somehow knew it was Naruto bumping into a wall, making me smirk.  
I then concentrated on my hearing, focusing on Naruto's padding of footsteps, so much that I was able to tell where he was standing and how far from me as he entered the room.  
The practice I had done for the past few weeks was really kicking my sense of hearing to such an extent that I was actually quite pleased with the result.

"Okaeri, Naruto," I greeted Naruto with a smile.

"Tadaima!"

My lips slipped into a frown as I heard his tone of voice that didn't seem any different than to usual before realising what the problem was.

_Tsunade must've probably put the bandages back on..._

I stood up and moved towards Naruto, until I felt the body heat of his that signify where he stood.  
Reaching up to the back of his head, I felt the predicted bandages there and started to peel them off, glad that Naruto didn't jerk away.

"W-what are you doing?" he asked me with a startled voice, but he kept still probably thinking that I knew what I was doing.  
I felt the bandages fall limply into my hands with ends in a direction that don't defy the gravitational force working upon them.

"Wha...S-Sasuke...?"  
A soft laughter escaped my lips hearing myself be identified with such a stupefied voice after a long silence.

_You probably thought I didn't know...but..._

"Happy Birthday, Naruto," I spoke aloud for the first time, which probably confirmed my identification to him.

Just as I raised a brow from the unfamiliar sound of a thud, I was pounded near my middle with a one whole person, attacking me by surprise.

"SASUKE~~!" Naruto cried as he clung onto my waist so tightly I was struggling to breathe. He seemed to have fallen to his knees by being able to detect the way Naruto was clutching onto me.

"You stupid STUPID PERSON! Waaaaaaahhhh!," Naruto burst into tears and he was just as loud as Tsunade's screaming that my ears were trying to cope with the amplitude of the tone of voice.

"...thank you...," I heard Naruto sob, and felt all my tense, restricting emotions drain away from myself, freeing me.  
He kept repeating that simple word of gratitude again and again as I reached to pat his head.

He probably wanted to say a lot more things to me...  
How foolish I was, and how equally as much sorrow he felt as he did with happiness because he wouldn't be satisfied with the sacrifice I made for him...

But for this day... he only just showed me his gratitude... _for me..._

_But you know what, Naruto?  
I will fall into any deepest darkness with you...  
I decided to keep you company and follow you till death does us apart...  
So don't worry... you'll never have to feel alone, ever again...  
I'll make sure of that._


	26. Chapter 25: Another existence

_But __you __know __what, __Naruto?__  
I __will __fall __into __any __deepest __darkness __with __you...  
I __decided __to __keep __you __company __and __follow __you __till __death __does __us __apart...  
So __don't __worry... __you'll __never __have __to __feel __alone, __ever __again...  
I'll __make __sure __of __that._

* * *

Chapter 25: Another existence

* * *

"Wonders never cease with this kid..." Tsunade thinks aloud, amused. After the operation of implanting Sasuke's eyes onto Naruto, Naruto is already showing recovery signs visible to the naked eye.  
The retinal blood vessels are stitched with chakra strings of Tsunade's, but a few minutes is all Naruto needs to get it glued back to originality without the stitches.  
What's more, the dark onyx eyes of the Uchiha's slowly turns into a familiar blood red like as if Naruto's blood connects and circulates all the way to the iris, and then ceases, fully conquering the eye as its own body part without rejection.

After the draining of blood through the iris, the boy's original eye color pigment that the blood vessel brings, slowly exchanges the red iris into an all familiar bright blue pair that is all too familiar.

_The __speed __of __recovery __depends __on __one's __will __to __live. __Naruto's __recovery __is __so __much __faster __compared __to __a __year __ago __when __Naruto __hadn't __met __the __Uchiha __brat __yet..._

Tsunade sighs as she wraps bandages over Naruto's eyes as she believes that she has met the most incredible pair of boys ever encountered in her long life.

"Eh? Doctor Tsunade... You're putting bandages on his eyes again?" Tsunade's assistant, Shizune asks, surprised.

"That brat can deal with Naruto. I'm too exhausted to handle him right now," Tsunade grumbles and finishes with the bandages.  
Shizune nods understandingly and continues back to packing the operation tools away.

_Be __grateful __to __that __utterly __imprudent __brat, __Naruto..._

"Doctor Tsunade, I-"  
Shizune stops in mid-sentence when she turns around to see the blond-haired doctor falling fast asleep on the chair, leaning against the operation bed where the patient had been a few minutes ago.  
A tug of her lips brings her to smile at the sight, and leaves quietly out the door as quietly as the door would open and shut behind her.

* * *

"..."

The room is dark and from the gap of the curtain, seeps a fragment of moonlight.  
This is what is called a night, duration of resting our bodies by sleeping.  
But unfortunately... I can't get to sleep... _at __all_.

I look to the side and see Sasuke, sound asleep.  
It's been a habit of his to come and sleep over, sharing the same bed, telling me the reason that it's because he finds it comforting and at ease, rather than staying alone in a quiet, cold room by himself, which is a feeling I'm familiar to as well.

I reach out to move a strand of hair off Sasuke's face and once again stare at his face with much amusement. His facial features are just like I had imagined when I had felt his face previously, but _seeing_ was a totally different thing.  
It's like a sketchy draft of someone being coloured in, pouring life into the 2-D person, making it come to life.

I can't help having a heavy heart with what Sasuke had sacrificed for me.  
It's too much to be given to such a revenant person like me, making it seem like this is not a donation but rapine.  
The gratefulness is there, the thoughts given from Sasuke is fully received and I can't thank him enough... but to my utter disgrace, the depression and remorse overruns the thankful feeling by miles and I want to return what he had given me, or reverse time.

But to think of how much Sasuke had been through deciding to give me something greatly important to him that will even go to the extent of affecting his life...  
To think how he must've had felt and bringing out such courage to do a sacrifice no one else would ever even think once in their lives...

_I __can't __bring __myself __to __say __anything... __I __have __no __right __to __tell __him __how impossibly insane he was__..._

After many moments of harrowing, I sigh and slip out of bed, feeling the need to go to the bathroom for refreshment of the mind.  
I close my eyes and make my way towards my destination since that had been natural for me, and vision isn't quite a thing to get used to so suddenly.

The cool water that runs from the tap fills my cupped hands as I splash it against my face.  
I finally open my eyes and look up to see a pair of blue eyes flash.  
I stare at the face that stares straight back at me and I bring my hands up to touch the cheeks that reflect in the mirror.  
Three scars on either side of the cheeks that aren't upon Sasuke's or any others.  
Is this what people distinguishes me as 'different'.

_Well, __'different' __definitely... __but __'monster' __I __think __is __another __thing..._

I lower my hands and turn to the side to grab a towel, when something ferly catches my eye in the reflection of the mirror and I turn to stare back at my reflection to see...

* * *

_**CRASH!**_

A loud shatter echoing down the corridor wakes me up, sending cold sweat from head to toe as if splashed in a bucket of ice cold water.  
What gives me this nerve-racking feeling is that this floor I am living in at the moment... is the ward that nobody –other than me- except one person is around...

Which means that this alarming crash comes from that certain exception...

_Naruto!_

I topple out of bed, blindly trying to find my way towards the door where it should be as I last memorised it to be.  
Still not used to having no vision, I stumble my way across the corridor, making my way to where the source of shattering had come from, which can't be anywhere but the bathroom.

"N-Naruto?" I call out in panic as I clutch the side of my head where it aches from the countless experience of hitting my head against the wall or floor during my sorry-to-call sprint.

"Sa-sasuke!"  
As soon as my name amplifies over towards me, I then feel a whoosh of wind and supportive hands over my waist.

"Are you okay! What're you doing!"  
My sense of smell also kicks in and my brows furrow in concern as I distinguish that metallic smell as _blood_.

"Talk about yourself! What were _you_ doing? Are you okay?" I had to ask in a rush with only panic rising from not being able to see the damage and not knowing what state Naruto is in.

"I'm okay, but Sasuke. You can't thoughtlessly wander around when you're still not used to it!" Naruto lectures me as if there's nothing to worry about and I start to suspect that the nervousness I had been feeling in Naruto is just my over-imaging.  
But then there is still the evident smell of blood...

"Naruto...w-what were you doing?"  
I voice out my thoughts.

"What? Oh...I...Uh...err-"

"Tell me the _truth_, Naruto," I cut in, knowing that he lacked mendacity since he never had the need to cover up something before seeing me.

"U-um... I...broke the mirror," Naruto mutters quietly.

"...you meant to say...you like..._punched _through it?" I ask slowly, listening more intently for Naruto's voice that whispers even quieter response than before.

"...ws...smbd-y th..r...st...ng ...me..."  
I can't totally hear what Naruto says but I still pick up the emotion of fear coming from him and I encourage him to repeat those words again.  
I then hear a suppressed sob and I reach out for Naruto's head and bring it towards my chest.

"Come... tell me what's wrong, Naruto."  
But then my heart nearly stops at those piercing whispered words.

"There was somebody there... _staring_ at me..."


	27. Chapter 26: Predator and Prey

_"Come... tell me what's wrong, Naruto."  
But then my heart nearly stops at those piercing whispered words._

"There was somebody there... staring at me..."

* * *

Chapter 26: Predator and Prey

* * *

_There was somebody there..._  
The first word that comes to mind when he spills those words with a shaky breath, is _hallucination_.

_Is this another symptom of the Kyuubi's curse...?_

"S-Sasuke...?" I hear Naruto's voice calling me unsurely.  
I reach out for where his head should be, and finding right on spot, I pat his head lightly, assuring him that it's okay.

But then my skin pricks as I feel something off.  
I quickly shove Naruto to the wall and take a defence stance before him as I feel a dangerous presence.

Naruto starts stuttering in panic and confusion, but I pay no attention to him as I perk my ears and listen attentively for any sound right in front of me, which is the bathroom Naruto had come out from.  
And then I hear a gasp from behind.

Feeling the aura of fear from Naruto, I strain my ears harder, but I hear nothing...until...

_"Hello there, Sasuke-kun"_

...a hissing-like creepy voice tune into my ears without a warning.

_Somebody_ was definitely there, and by Naruto's gasp, I assume that this _somebody_had appeared at that point, but I hadn't heard a sound of any footsteps come towards us.

I feel an ice cold chill run down my spine as I only know one person who can do this.  
An image of a flash of red eyes crosses my mind.

_But no... This isn't Itachi's voice..._I think, /iso... who is it?/i

"Sorry, Naruto-kun. I didn't mean to scare you. And you don't need to be so defensive, Sasuke-kun," the voice says, after a chuckle that sends a wave of chill down my spine. It's a ghastly experience as if I'm faced with a voice without a body.

"Who are you, how do you know my name?"  
I ask in a lowered voice, trying to sound as calm as my throat would allow.  
Another air-choking chuckle followed by words.

"How rude of me to not introduce myself. I am a doctor who had been in this hospital a very long time ago."  
The voice then pauses.

"That still doesn't explain why you know my name," I growl as a sign of urge to continue, wanting to know the answer to my question quickly.

An uncomfortable feeling surge through my veins while my unsettling emotions tighten my chest as I find out that that this pretentious person knows who I am, and has a reason for it but is holding it out excruciatingly long, as if enjoying seeing my impatience which I don't let it show outwardly.

_The reason... I want to know. I'm not famous enough to be known widely amongst doctors... unless..._

"I had been studying... the Uchiha bloodline, _Uchiha _Sasuke-kun."

"W-_who are you_!"

I can't stop myself from trembling as I suddenly feel courage drain from me, replaced by fear.

"_My name is..._"

* * *

_Somebody was there. Somebody was definitely there... _

But no matter how many times I look behind myself, I don't see anyone there.  
When I turn back to the mirror, I see no one except myself reflecting back at me.

But when I decide to give up and turn away from the mirror, the face flashes again.  
I spin around in a split second as my heart starts thumping wildly from extreme fear.  
No one's behind me.  
There had definitely been someone there though.  
It's not something like my eyes playing tricks on me.  
I had felt the chill of someone staring at me too.

_Once can be a mistake... but a second time isn't a mistake. Somebody was definitely there!_

It's as if my heart can't hold it any longer.  
My heart starts to become too scared to support the heavy pumping of blood as I feel myself starting to hyperventilate.

_Who is it...?_

I want to ask it out loud but my tongue stays stuck to the roof of my mouth and my jaws clench so tight that my mouth won't open.

_Who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Who is it!_

I slowly find myself daring to look back at the mirror.

AND THERE IT WAS!

I couldn't help it any longer and put a fist through the mirror, shattering the face that's there but not there into millions of shards falling to the ground and the sink.  
I turn back and like I thought, no one's there. Just an empty cubicle.

The mirror is broken now though and it can't reflect anything back anymore.  
I feel slightly at ease, but the fear is still there, so strong that it makes me forget about the injured hand that I had punched with.

_But what was it...?_

I stare at the cubicle, remembering the ghoulish face that looked dead, yet having dangerously lively eyes as if they were a predator's eyes watching with _hunting eyes_over a prey.

Then suddenly I hear stumbling coming from the corridor and I instantly know that it's Sasuke rushing towards this way.

"N-Naruto?" he calls out to me with a slight pained expression.  
I quickly run to his aid and sit him up properly.  
He clutches his head and I assume that he's hit it hard while trying to come over here.

"What were you doing?" he asks me, and my blood freezes.

_What should I say!_

There was no way I could say that I was seeing things...  
I didn't want him to make any more troubles and worries over me and more over, I never ever want him to regret giving me these precious eyes that Sasuke had sacrificed into giving me.

To fully appreciate my vision is a hard thing to do because only half my mind agrees with that idea.  
The other half still depresses over the too big a sacrifice Sasuke had given me.  
Not that I'd ever tell or show Sasuke that.

So I'm lost for words, when Sasuke strains the word 'truth' when he asks me for exactly that.

Well... there's nothing I can come up with that Sasuke will be satisfied with, so I decide to tell the truth... or well, a slightly bending truth.  
It doesn't work. Sasuke knows me too well even without reading my face like an open book. He knows...

"You meant to say... you like...punched through it?" he asks, pin pointing my 'truth' exactly.

_It's probably no used lying to him...  
He probably knows everything...  
Can feel my lie... rather than hear.  
_

I whisper out the truth of what I saw, whether he's going to believe me or not, as I judged myself on that a few minutes ago.

"Hey..." Sasuke says ever so softly as if encouraging me, "try... saying that again?"  
Tears well up in my eyes and as I feel Sasuke's warmth and then the fear that I had bottled up, making me slip one tear by another.  
I try hiding it because it feels like Sasuke can still see this side of me, this weak , sick and shameful child, even if he doesn't have the ability to see any longer.

I feel a hand pull me towards his chest as he soothes me like he always does, comforting me, and always making me feel better.

"Come... tell me what's wrong, Naruto," he tells me, and I decide to state more clearly what I had, for the second time.  
Sasuke closes his mouth at this and becomes silent.

_Ah... now he thinks I'm bothersome..._

But then, before I could apologise to him he suddenly raises his head like a dog that had picked up sound.  
He pushes me against the wall and guards me with one hand as the other is held up before himself in a defensive stance, towards something that's coming from the bathroom... or that's where Sasuke starts intently becoming aware of.

I ask him what's wrong but he won't answer and I try to nag him from being too afraid of a suddenly highly alert and mute Sasuke, but then I see a figure appear, walking out of the bathroom towards us and it makes my gasp in fear.

It's the face I had seen reflecting in the mirror.

_That face... that ghostly pale skin with the eyes, staring hungrily at me... no, Sasuke, this time,_I realise.

The person then starts talking to Sasuke, who the person apparently knew.  
I see a full body without any transparency and it makes me rest assured that it's not a dead person.

But whoever this person is, makes Sasuke freeze in shock when he hears the name of this creepy person.

"I had been studying... the Uchiha bloodline, _Uchiha _Sasuke-kun."

"W-_who are you_!"

"My name is...

..._Doctor Orochimaru_"


	28. Chapter 27: Unexpected, comes fast

_"W-who are you!"  
_

_"My name is..._

_...Doctor Orochimaru"_

* * *

Chapter 27: What you don't expect, comes fast

* * *

Doctor Orochimaru.

It's a name I had never forgotten.  
The name that I had read awhile ago which the passage I recall clearly...

_...But regardless of the forbidden laws, a researcher named Dr. Orochimaru apparently secretly continued on the research, using many sacrifices to obtain results for his researches..._

_...From the years of research and finding no cure for this symptom, the Uchiha blood became a lethal weapon and was used for assassination by the ones who opposed the 4th leader Hokage of the village..._

_...Not knowing about the affects of the lethal gene that was known to only a handful of people working for Orochimaru in the first place, the 4th Hokage, Namikaze Minato had created an F1 generation for the Kyuubi's curse for the first time in scientific history._  
_So presently, the very first example of an F1 generation of the curse exists. The son of Namikaze Minato and Kushina Uzumaki..._

_Dr Orochimaru was the soul criminal who victimised Naruto! _

Boiling rage builds up from the pit of my stomach right up to each nerve in my body that makes me shake in furiously deep anger.  
My mind fills every inch with murderous red and nothing else.  
No room for any coherent thoughts.

I don't even hear Naruto's shaky voice calling my name.  
Letting just fury and hatred drive my body, I let that emotion become full in control of my body.

Lunging towards the person in front of me, I aim a punch at the source of voice as my instincts of creating an image covering for my lack of sights.  
My fist collides in contact with what presumably is the jaw along with a crack or the bone breaking.

Clearly confident in knowing precisely where he stands now, I give him no chance to think or recover as I land a kick to his stomach with all the strength that I could muster at that point.  
I hear a body crash the wall of the bathroom several metres away and I really hope that he had earned critical damage.

I take a step forward when strong hands grab a hold of my leg, stopping my movement and bringing back part of my senses.

"S-Stop, Sasuke! _What are you doing!_" I hear Naruto scream.  
His voice is shaky and I realise that I had made him cry.  
As if to confirm my assumption, I next hear a quiet sob.

But this won't calm my feelings.

"'What am I doing?' I'm trying to kill him!" I snarl as I strongly grit my teeth with an effort not to lose control and lash out at Naruto, "he's the one to blame for everything! He's screws people's lives! He doesn't deserve to f-cking live!"

_That guy is all to blame for Naruto's misery and pain that he had to endure throughout his whole life!_

But then...-

"...Y-you're not Sasuke."

-...Naruto's words make my heart freeze.

"Sasuke doesn't resort to violence... Sasuke isn't a person to kill someone... Sasuke doesn't swear... Sasuke... Sasuke..."

_That's right... He doesn't know who he is... what he's done... to you_I think but then mentally shake my head.

_No... even if he found out, he still wouldn't blame him for where he stands right now... that's how Naruto is..._

I sigh, and turn around to crouch down in front him.  
Not knowing what to do, an apology comes out of my mouth before anything and I go over an extreme suppression of my emotions just for Naruto's sake as I wait for Naruto control his fear as well.

I reach out to ruffle Naruto's hair and I give him a small smile to show him that I'm okay now.

_Sasuke isn't a person to kill someone... Sasuke doesn't swear..." he says. I guess it's because he doesn't know me... -no, doesn't know the other side of me..._

The reason why he doesn't know isn't something too twistingly hard.  
It's an easy answer for me to figure...

It's because I had changed _because_of Naruto...

"Well it looks like you've calmed down a bit..."  
My spine runs a cold chill as I hear a calm, creepy voice right behind me. A calm voice as if the episode a few minutes back hadn't happened at all.  
And once again, this guy had come right behind me without pick up his presence at all.

"...But too bad. It seems like we have run out of time to hold a further conversation, Sasuke-kun," he continues as I hear footsteps clacking noisily towards this way, "so I shall see you again soon."

The footsteps become louder and a barking voice that belongs to the old hag asks what's wrong and what happened and such.  
By the way she talks; I figure that that Orochimaru bastard had escaped however he had accomplished in doing so.

_"I shall see you again soon"? What did he want with me?_

_What is he planning to do?_

* * *

A few days later, Naruto and I return to how we usually spend our days, although I often find myself drifting away from Naruto's conversation to Orochimaru.

"-ey, hey, Sasuke! Are you listening?" I suddenly tune in Naruto's voice and I realise that I had done it again.  
It's nearly time for us to go to bed and we sit on our own beds, chatting until drowsiness knocks us to sleep.

"Ah, sorry... I'm going to the bathroom for a sec."  
I excuse myself and run away from the decreasing mood in the atmosphere.

I know that Naruto is worried about my action from last time, and that he's trying to lighten up the mood as much as he can...  
But too many unanswered question floats in my mind that I can't concentrate on anything.

_I really need to forget that mad, creepy voice..._

I decide to wash my face and refresh myself, promising to forget the encounter with Orochimaru and concentrate more on Naruto as usual.  
My hands slide along the doors and walls for direction until I find myself reaching the bathroom.

There I'm supposed to go to the sink when I hear a hissing-like voice behind me.

"_I was waiting for you, Sasuke-kun..._"

* * *

Sasuke doesn't seem alright at all.  
Ever since the day the creepy long-haired man who had named himself Doctor All-O-Chillyman, I think he's called, appeared in front of Sasuke and I, Sasuke always seems to be spaced out as in not paying attention to me at all.  
He even ignores Doctor Tsunade even with her death threats.

_Something's really wrong..._

I don't want to see Sasuke like how he had been when I felt his fury.  
The moment the doctor had said his name, my eyes had felt burning hot and I somehow knew that Sasuke was furious back then.

The reason I don't know, but I'm too afraid to ask either.  
His aura had been a dangerous, murderous one and I had thought then that if I don't stop him, he might even attempt to seriously kill that doctor.

_I can't let that creepy doctor come and see Sasuke ever again! I need to protect Sasuke!_

I grit my teeth and feel a familiar hotness in my eyes as I strongly grit my teeth and ball my fists so hard that I before I realise it, my nails dig into my palms.  
A strong feeling starts to boil from the pit of my stomach.

An emotion I shouldn't familiarise myself with...  
A dangerous aura I shouldn't get used to...  
The emotion named...-

"Naruto?"

The emotion sweeps away in a flash as if a bucket of water splashes at my face, distinguishing my flame before it lost control.  
When I look towards the doorway, I see Sasuke furrowing his brows.

"Huh? What's wrong, Sasuke?" I ask in confusion.

"...I smell blood," Sasuke states unsurely and I then notice the smell too.  
I look down to see my bloodied hands and then realise what I had done.

"Oh, whoops. It seems I was balling my fists too tightly..." I laugh it off to make sure Sasuke gets that it's just an accident.  
Gratefully, Sasuke asks no further and walks over towards me.

"H-hey...!" I cry as Sasuke comes right over to my bed and gets under the same blanket.

"S-Sasuke! This is _my_ bed! Yours is over _there_!" I shout and try to shove him out while I feel not my eyes, but this time, my whole face growing hot.  
It's really not a familiar feeling to have someone this close and embarrassment over-fills my capacity of the jar called emotion.

"Just for today, Naruto."

These words make my hands freeze on Sasuke's arm and shoulder.  
I don't know what's going on.  
As if the said emotion over-fills my jar by the double, my head starts to spin and I suddenly become real tired.  
I sigh and give up, turning away from him.

"And you're gonna tell me the reason why?" I grumble, perking my ears for an answer.  
But it happens to be a reply that freeze-locks my heart.  
It's not a reply I had ever wanted to hear.

"_Today is the last day I'll be with you, Naruto._"


	29. Chapter 28: End and Start

_"Just for today, Naruto."_

"And you're gonna tell me the reason why?"

"Today is the last day I'll be with you, Naruto."

* * *

Chapter 28: End and start

* * *

_"Today is the last day" he says? What the hell? What's going on!_

My surroundings suddenly become pitch black as if I'm thrown into a pit-less hole that I'm supposed to keep falling and falling, so deep that the only source of light which is the opening, speeds further and further away from me until it gets smaller than the tip of my fingers that reach out for that light.

_Why...are you abandoning me...?_

And then as if someone had pressed the reverse button or the gravity suddenly decided to become an upward force, the light that almost disappeared comes back at me as my body is thrown forward towards it.

What had hit that reverse button, had been Sasuke's warm arm locking my head and the hand reaching out to ruffle the further side of my hair, away from Sasuke.

I turn my head towards Sasuke who looks in the same direction as me, facing away from me.  
There are a lot of things I want to ask...  
I want to argue...  
I want to protest...  
I want to complain...  
I want to urge...  
And tell him not to leave me...

But his warm arm somehow eases my uneasy thoughts and his spoken words make my eyelids come down to take me to a dreamless world.

"Don't worry, just trust me and go to sleep."

_Don't worry..._

...trust me.

* * *

Once I hear Naruto's soft, even breaths telling me that he's asleep, I twist my body to turn upwards to face the ceiling.  
A sigh escapes my lips as I think over about my decisions once again.

_How many times have I thought this over by now?_

I sigh deeply for the umpteenth time resting an arm on my forehead.  
Naruto squirms beside me and I jolt in fear of the chance that I had woken him up, because even if Naruto showers me with grenade questions, I won't know how to answer anything.  
What's frustrating is that no matter how many times I think about the options I have to choose from, only one seems to stand so solidly before my eyes, blocking the other option.

_But Naruto's probably gonna probably go against it... especially since I'm not going to tell the reason for why I'm going..._

Naruto doesn't know about his disease at all. Just like everyone else.  
They all think it's the curse of the legendary fox that possesses his body when it's just a scientifically proven logical disease, although it indeed is a truly rare case for Naruto since it had been a forced disease.

It truly screws my mind insane to think that I'm going to take the helping hand of that creepy snake-like doctor, Orochimaru. But what that doctor had said...was pain-stakingly true and logical.

* * *

flashback

"I was waiting for you, Sasuke-kun..."  
My fist and feet come first as an automatic reaction when I feel danger, but it collides with nothing but air.  
It's that feeling again... as if no body exists.  
Just the voice... produced from thin air.

It gives me a small shudder keeping aiming for the voice that swiftly moves from side to side, presumably blocking all my attacks.  
His chuckles that mock me fuel my body in anger to increase the speed of my punch and kicks.

"Now, now, Sasuke-kun. Don't be so rash here. You want to help Naruto-kun, don't you?" the hissing voice says.  
The words stop my movement, but that had been a wrong move as I then suddenly feel a huge force pushing me back to the wall behind with my hands pinned high above my head.

He's standing so closely to me that I can't raise my leg to kick him out of the way and his strong grip on my wrists are like human shackles making me have to admit that he is much stronger than me in combat and that there's nothing I can do.

"Now will you calmly listen to what I've got to say, Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru murmurs right beside my air, giving me a visible shudder.

"Why are you here? How did you get out of jail?" I growl in a tone a few knots lower than usual.

"It seems that you've researched upon the disease," and here, another chuckle before continuing, "but who I am, is not important right now."

_It damn sure is important!_

"What you should be worrying about, is what is there to do for your precious blond friend... is that not right?"

_It is... but,_

"I'm not going to let you become involved with Naruto, _ever_again. I will never borrow a helping hand you'd offer!" I snarl at him.

"Even if there are forbidden researches that could help Naruto-kun out that Tsunade would never agree to do? She's not going to go any further across the danger zone as you are willing to, Sasuke-kun. I'm surprised that she even allowed and transferred your eyes to him, herself."

A sweat breaks down as I really start to wonder how much this person knows about us... no, _me_.

"My eyes aren't glass-blue..." I state through my gritted teeth.

_Yes... that old hag had said that Naruto's speciality kicked in, adapting to the transferred eyes and returning back to its original genetic colour of Naruto's._

"But they're still somehow connected to you, it seems, Sasuke-kun. Because when you express your anger, Naruto-kun's eyes turn into a red colour, and that's a trait that only becomes a phenotypic expression when it feels anger. Surely, that frozen-in-fear look of Naruto-kun wasn't called 'anger', Sasuke-kun...unlike you."

I can hear the smirk on his lips in the way he talks. If what Orochimaru is saying, is the truth, which seems scientifically impossible to prove since the emotions that the eyes react to, are in separate bodies, it means anything may be possible in many ways that hasn't been tried.

_Many ways... that involve risks...  
Risk of lives... human marmot...  
In other words..._

...forbidden experiments.

I start to see what Orochimaru is getting at.  
_Beceause_ he's a dangerous person who had broken laws into doing forbidden experiments, _he_is the only one who can go beyond limits of experiments that may help Naruto... even if it may cost my life!

"It seems you're starting to understand what I have in mind, Sasuke-kun..."

_Am I willing... to let this man help Naruto...?_

"You looked like a guard dog of Naruto-kun's...," hisses Orochimaru, right beside my ear, "willing to do anything that would help him survive... or did I just have the wrong impression?"

His words intoxicate my mind, making it spin endlessly.  
It's because of the two options I have right in front of me.  
Both have the word "help" in it, as well as "betray".

_If I reject this offer, it will mean that I'm letting an opportunity to save Naruto, slide... blocking a chance to extend his life..._

But on the other hand, even if I get help from Orochimaru, Naruto's probably going to think I betrayed him and left him behind, if I go with Orochimaru now...

"...I'll give you time. We shall see each other again soon, Sasuke-kun," a low cackling voice becoming distant as Orochimaru speaks his supposedly last words for today and I feel my wrists slowly being loosened.  
His presence starts to fade away and suddenly a surge of panic flows through my veins, decreasing the blood several degrees, and I open my mouth to shout.

"_Wait!_I'll take that offer!"

The surrounding suddenly becomes so quiet and I strain my ears to hear anything over the sound of my pumping veins that rushes my heart to hammer against the ribcage so loudly.

I abruptly choose the latter of my two options, because if I choose the first, I probably can't ever forgive myself and it will burden my life forever.

_And for the latter, I could maybe soften the negative effects with _this_ idea..._

Just when I think that it had been too late, I start to hear the chuckle.

"I'm very surprised at that, Sasuke-kun. Very well... Come and see me at the gate of the village in the evening. Make sure you properly discuss and have a receiver arranged by this hospital, or else our experiment will be for nothing and will not help Naruto-kun," Orochimaru explains.

"Okay, I got it."

_I know who he's talking about. And I know just how to deal with her too. _

Now that his conditions will be cleared, he was going to have to meet mine.

"Oi, I have one condition..."

* * *

Yes, I know. This is the FAR MOST WORST CHAPTER I'VE EVER WRITTEN!

I'm TERRIBLY SORRY! m(_ _)m

I really didn't have enough time this week (last week now, actually) but I really couldn't extend my submittion any longer.  
I probs come back to edit this after I finish with this series, but PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR THIS CHAPTER'S UTTER FAILURE!  
I WILL MAKE IT UP TO YOU NEXT SUBMITTION!

(So please don't give up on me yet o(:≧д≦:)o


	30. Chapter 29: The Procedure

"_Wait! I'll take that offer!"_

"Very well... Come and see me at the gate of the village in the evening.

_Make sure you properly discuss and have a receiver arranged by this hospital...  
...or else our experiment will be for nothing and will not help Naruto-kun..."_

"...I have one condition..."

* * *

Chapter 29: The Procedure

"...So that's how it is," the brat states firmly.  
This incredibly insane blind boy here right in front of me, had just explained to me that he had decided to go along with one of Konoha's most criminally dangerous prisoner who somehow had managed to escape out of prison and come all the way to find his piece of work, the successful experiment that he had created about a decade and a half ago.

...and what's more unbelievable was that _I was going to let that happen_.

"_ARE YOU INSANE!?_" Tsunade screeches, and even _I_ had to flinch at the resonance hitting my eardrums a thousand times more than usual.  
I had expected her to be mad, but not turn into a high-pitched crazy parrot who kept cussing how mad _I_was.

"...then are you going to let Naruto die?"

Those words had shut her up. I had only said it so quietly, compared to her voice, that it amazed me that she was able to hear it over her own voice.

Tsunade starts to bite her nails in frustration while the pen in her hand that was no longer revivable from its critical condition of getting crushed under the doctor's fury.

I look over under her desk where I see the destiny of those miserable pens that had become victims of Tsunade's mood swings and short temper.  
But I don't care how many wasted pens were to go in there, as long as I am given the permission to help Naruto survive at all costs.

"As a doctor..." Tsunade starts with a dangerously calm voice and my eyes revert back to her, "I shouldn't accept this preposterous idea..."

Yes. I know.

Tsunade then raises her head and looks up at me with a face expression I thought I wouldn't ever see plastered across her face.

"...but before being a doctor, he's like my own boy..."

It's a face of a mother, hurt and confused, but would do anything to save her child, even if that meant she was to give her own life.  
She won't only be sued as a doctor, but be arrested if anyone was to know that she had just agreed to help a prisoner with illegal experiments... but that goes the same with me.

And so what?  
We weren't gonna back down from this!

I feel my lips tug at the edges, not believing how flawless her expression is.

"Leave it to me"

I leave those words behind as I feel more confident in my decision, and ready than ever for what was coming up ahead for me.

* * *

"I'm only going to be transferred to another hospital, temporarily," Sasuke says to me, but I still feel the tears pricking at the side of my eyes.  
He's the only friend I had ever made, and to lose him was an unconditionally cruel fact that I had to face.

I can't help thinking that the problem lays within me, but I don't get quite far with the depression as Sasuke tells me its not so, as if he can read my mind.

No... I'm probably really easy to read.

On the other hand, Sasuke is really hard to read, and I don't know what the hell he's thinking, but when was I ever good at reading people anyway?

"Naruto"

Having my name called, I whip around to face Sasuke who stands at the doorway with a bag that seems to sag, making me assume that he hardly has any belongings.

_Ah... he's really going..._

"It took you long enough!" I snort, trying to hold a casual conversation to cover my disappointment and fear.

"Well I couldn't remember where I put my stuff, now that I don't have vision," Sasuke replies smugly but with a hint of embarrassment, making me tug a small smile.  
Why I had let him go, was because he said that he would call me with "telephones", which I have never used before, so that's some excitement I am looking forward to. At least some wires will still connect me with him...

"Ittekimasu (Well, I'm off then)," Sasuke says, and leaves.  
Just like that.  
No goodbyes or see you laters.

Indicating that this is the place he belongs, and this is the place he is coming back to, and I'm going to stay here and wait for his return, so one day I can welcome him back warmly with the words "okaerinasai" (welcome back)!

* * *

A few months later, experiments had gone well so far, and I spend most of the time on a bed with lots of unknown tubes stuck with me as if they are external veins seen outside my body.

"-And and and then guess what, Sasuke? Na, Sasuke? Sasuke, are you listening?"

I sigh and pinch the bridge of my nose, as I hold the phone against my ear and listen to loud gas molecules whizzing around the room in excitement, except these ones are from the phone, called "words", that whizzes _directly into my ear canal_.

"Sasuke?"

A confused voice comes from the receiver end.

"Naruto... how long did I say telephone calls should be?"

"...2 hours?"

"_Wrong!_"

I hear a little "eep" at the immediate response from me.

"Um...h-half an hour?" Naruto now says in a more quiet tone.

"Correct. Now how long have we spoken today?"

"T-ten minutes...?"

"_Wrong!_"

Another little "eep".

"...A-an hour and seventeen minutes and thirty-four seconds?"

"...correct."

"B-but Sasuke~~ sometimes you don't even care if we talk over 2 hours!"

Normally I wouldn't mind talking to Naruto for long durations. But sometimes, with these experiments going on, I lose too much blood and it's just too exhausting to stay listening to someone over the phone.

"Oh really? I didn't notice. I should keep my eyes on the clock from next time then."

"No! Nononono! We're good! Always the usual half hour! Don't be bothered checking! I will keep my eyes on the clock! Sasuke needs to worry not!" Naruto replies in a rush.

It makes my tiring lips pull into a small smirk.  
Moving your muscles to smile, is naturally done, so no matter how tired you are, as long as someone can make you do it, it is done.

_I was only kidding... like I have eyes to see the time anyway. I wonder if there's any clocks in this underground hideout lab anyway?_

While I think to myself for a second, Naruto finds his chance to start to start talking about something random again.

"Naruto, I will call you again tomorrow, so let's leave it for today."

"But Sas-"

"If you don't stop now, I won't call you again," I state, and then I hear a rush of "bye, Sasuke!" and an immediate sound of hanging up.

Surprised at the speed of the hang up, I momentarily become blank, will holding onto the phone against my ear, before letting out a small laugh at Naruto.

"Is he getting better now?"  
I hear that creepy voice I have to face every day.

"Yes, better by the day," I reply curtly.

"That's good to hear, isn't it, Sasuke-kun?"

"I'm going to have a rest. Don't bother me for awhile."  
I keep my conversations short with Doctor Orochimaru.  
I still don't trust him entirely and I still can't forgive what he had done in the past to Naruto.  
He still has something else in his mind... _for me_.  
He just hasn't made a move..._yet_.

* * *

Finally! An update! After what... half an year? orz


	31. Chapter 30: Purpose of life

_"Is he getting better now?"_

_"Yes, better by the day," I reply curtly._

_"That's good to hear, isn't it, Sasuke-kun?"_

_He is still has something else in his mind... for me._  
_He's just not made a move...yet._

* * *

Chapter 30: Purpose in life

* * *

The frequency of the strokes lessens...  
The legs work more freely now...  
The controls of the arms are getting much better...  
The inner organs are functioning without any problems  
My whole body seems less weak and fragile...

Why...?

Why was this happening to me?  
The moment Sasuke transferred to a different hospital temporarily...

No...the moment I became friends with Sasuke... my health started to improve greatly...

But... up to this extent?

The more better I got once he _did_ move out was evident.  
If his morale support and staying by my side was the reason I was getting better, then that wasn't the case now.

And what's more?  
Things that I had already lost, are coming back to me, recovering, making me stand and walk and eat as if I'm in a world where miracles really do happen.  
The impossible deterioration becomes totally cured as if the reverse button was hit.

No... this wasn't natural.  
It wasn't a recovery from self-made power either.

A thought had been stuck for awhile now...  
And with that, I had come to think of one conclusion...

I'm stupid, so I can't figure out things with just a whiz of a run through my thoughts memories around and try to pull strings to match puzzle pieces.

But my _body _knew what was going on...

...because I'm starting to _feel_ Sasuke _inside me_!

* * *

"...what?"

Sasuke was dumbstruck.  
He was tired and weak and had no strength to support his body as he slumped on a cold, solid desk and weakly held his phone against his ear, but for once, he had to straighten up at Doctor Tsunade's words.  
And he just had to hear what she said again.

"Naruto for some reason, suddenly rejected all medications and operations," Doctor Tsunade calmly states, but with a hint of rare nervousness in her voice, "and he won't tell me the reasons either. I'm sorry Sasuke, but us doctors can't do anything to the patients against their will."

"But why is he suddenly doing this!?" Sasuke rushed his words against the phone, with evident panic, but to only those who knew him well, "is he becoming suicidal again? Is it because I'm not there? He sounded okay when he called me just yesterda-!"

Sasuke's throat got caught as he said the last sentence.

_No...  
Come to think of it, Naruto sounded a bit off..._

He had moments where he would try to say something, but cut himself off and say it's nothing.  
Too tired, Sasuke had missed that or didn't think much of it, but when he tried to remember those words Naruto had tried to start off questioning, his eyes started to widen.

_"Hey, Sasuke... You know what? It's weird... sometimes I feel..."_

_"You know what? Forget it. Ahahaha"_  
_"It's not weird, you're weird."_  
_"Shut up, Sasuke~"_

_"Sasuke..."_  
_"yeah?"_  
_"Don't... don't pull it too hard on yourself, ae?"_  
_"Like what? I'm only sleeping all day"_

_"...naruto?"_  
_"Oh, uh... hahaha. Sasuke, you lazy bum! You better take regular exercise!"_

_"Sasuke... you aren't..."_  
_"You aren't what?"_  
_"...no, its nothing."_

_"Sasuke..."_  
_"...yeah?"_  
_"...please come back."_  
_"...soon."_

"...you think... he figured it out?" Sasuke asked Doctor Tsunade in fear.

"Maybe he did, Sasuke," Doctor Tsunade sighed over the phone, sounding less surprised and calm about that than Sasuke, "but either way, he wants you back. He'd rather have you there with him than just a connection over the phone."

"_But he can't_!" Sasuke growled over the phone.

_He can't quit! He's definitely getting better! He's evidently getting his health back! He can't just stop here!_

The grip on the phone became stronger, making Sasuke's pale knuckles become whiter, and he gritted his teeth.

This wasn't just about Naruto.  
Sasuke was basically a living corpse without him.  
He had dedicated his life upon Naruto, and found a meaning to his life when he found out that he could be the only one who could help Naruto survive.

If he stopped this now, if he couldn't do anything for Naruto, then his existence would mean nothing... his purpose of living means nothing...  
All what he did up till now, will mean nothing...

"He can't... He can't do this to me..."

"...Sasuke," Doctor Tsunade sighed, "you've done more than enough to sacrifice to have Naruto recover to this extent. What you have given to Naruto all this time, every day, from the very day that you had met him, meant everything. It's enough Sasuke. You did everything Naruto had hoped for."

"...don't," Sasuke further ground his teeth in anger, not about to let this happen, "don't give me crap like that!_ Give the phone to Naruto!_"

* * *

The silence talks to me while the stillness touches me.

The atmosphere seems dead and the air, unemotional.  
I hadn't been educated before, so these words tied with another in describing features I feel, may not make sense... but this is exactly how I feel...

_How I had felt... before I had met Sasuke... and now it's back._

I stare through the window, out at the blue sky.  
Somehow I wish that what I see can be seen by Sasuke as I stare at it for him too.

Suddenly I hear footsteps from the corridor, and I know that Doctor Tsunade is heading my way.  
The bed creaks as I slowly lower my feet onto the cold floor.

When I make my way towards the door, a shadow stretches into the room from the window, and it makes my feet freeze in movement.

For a second I had thought that the looming shadow that had crept into the room for a couple of seconds, had looked like it had been a shape of a grim reaper...  
But somehow, even after seeing that, I feel no fear and instead, the smallest smile tugs at my lips, understandingly.

_It's probably just the shadow of a bird flying past..._

I shake my head and open the door to my room and meet Doctor Tsunade face-to-face who has a perplexed face.

"I heard you coming," I say with a laugh and a hearty shrug.  
She slightly frowns and hands me the phone she had been holding onto in her hand.  
I know who's on the other end, and I have an idea of what he's going to say...  
So I sigh deeply before holding my hand out to receive the phone.

"...hi, Sasuke!" I try to keep up my enthusiastic tone as usual, but I receive a very furious growl instead.

"Don't 'hi' me! What's the meaning of this!?"

"Well don't 'What's the meaning of this' me either, Sasuke!" I retort in reply.  
I have confidence in my assumption of what he's doing, and I feel that this is something I should not let him do as he please, even if this is all for me.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I mean. Sasuke," I mutter with a sigh, not liking how Sasuke is still trying to cover his actions when I've already figured it all out, "don't play dumb. Come back here!"

"Look, Naruto. I don't know what weird conclusion you came up with, but-"

"I can _feel_ you _in _me, Sasuke! Don't give me a load of bull when you're the one offering your body for me! I never asked for that! I don't what to live long! I just want to have a fun time spending it with you!"

"Naruto..." Sasuke mutters much more quietly over the phone that I have to push the phone much closer to the ear.  
And then he says something that really waver my decision.

"Please don't take away my reason of existence..."

It's when I realise that what he had being doing; his decisions to suffer for me hadn't only been entirely for me.  
People always tend to want to have a purpose to exist and have a reason to be living... Being there for someone... wanting to be useful for someone...

_Sasuke had been finding a reason to live... just like me..._

But as much as he feels that his doing has a great meaning to it, I don't think this is right.  
Not right to sacrifice himself for a mere no one, like me.  
I'm not saying this because I'm being negative about my existence, but because I think his life values more than mine...  
More than my body that has a fate to keep deteriorating.

_No Sasuke should have a more meaningful reason of existence.  
It shouldn't be this way..._

"Sasuke... I-"

!

"_NARUTO!_" I hear Doctor Tsunade scream when I suddenly cough up blood and I feel as if all the puppet strings holding me up, just snap.  
I feel the gravity pulling me down, and the vision of the room tumble and sway.

I suddenly feel the limit to my life.  
I hear Sasuke shouting my name over the phone.

_Sorry Sasuke... like I'd thought, I can't be the reason for your living..._

"_NARUTO!_"

* * *

**Cye:**

To those of you who don't read my journal, I have finally finished me exams for the year, and I will have more time to work on my FFs now. So you'll being see more of me.  
Although I really have to start thinking of finishing this series since this is what... chapter 30? It's even longer than 'I wanna protect you' series! Gah!

Thanks always to those who read, fav and comment!  
It really keeps me going! 9/10 of the reason why I write and post FFs! (1/10 being self-satisfaction and passion to write!) XD


	32. Chapter 31: Living Instinct

_"NARUTO!"  
I hear Doctor Tsunade scream when I suddenly cough up blood and I feel as if all the puppet strings holding me up, just snap.  
I feel the gravity pulling me down, and the vision of the room tumbles and sway._

_I suddenly feel the limit to my life._  
_I hear Sasuke shouting my name over the phone._

_Sorry Sasuke... like I'd thought, I can't be the reason for your living..._

* * *

Chapter31: Living Instinct

* * *

beep... beep... beep...

The constant sound keeps coming closer and closer, as if its advancing towards me.  
I know this sound.  
It's all too familiar that it makes me sick to hear it, like the ticking sound of a clock that you over-sensitively hear and it distracts you so much that you suddenly can't go to sleep at all.  
In my case, it's the other way round.

Not as shrilling as an alarm clock that's on top of the list for the most convenient thing in your life to throw out the window at a morning you just don't want to wake up on...  
But still an unwelcoming sound that welcomes you back to the world, nevertheless.  
The sound of machines that keeps my blood pumping, my cells activating, my lungs sucking in air...

_I'm guess I'm still alive._

I open my eyes warily and wish that I never did, since the moment I stir awake; a shrill equivalent to an alarm clock comes right at my face, calling my name.  
When I squint at the sound, my eyes try to concentrate on the couple of blurry figures before me, they seem to be staring down at me.

_Is it Sasuke...? Is he back?_

Of course, one of them had belonged to the one who screamed my name _at_ me, long blond hair with huge boobs that did not describe Sasuke at all, but the other figure with short black hair, stared down at me quietly with a slight frown.

But as the visions start clearing, my hopeful thoughts start causing a land slide and disappear.  
It's Doctor Tsunade's assistant who helps out at emergencies, but never have a look of approval for involving herself with me.

"Is that supposed... to be an imitation... of a fangirl... that I'm supposed to laugh at...?" I manage to breathe out on this suffocating mask which was supposed to make it easier for me to breathe by sending through oxygen, but it didn't seem to be doing the job right.

_Get it right, man~_ I lazily think, and tug of smile pulls at the edges of my lips, thinking if I had said that out loud, I would've probably gained a smirk from Sasuke.

"Well you seem to be just fine!" Doctor Tsunade huffs, as a worried face soon turns into an insulted expression as soon as she hears my smart remark.

"How are you feeling?" she then asks.

"...mm...suffocating..." I reply as I reach out to take off the oxygen mask off my face, when something inside me strikes like a lightning bolt and makes me freeze for a moment.

I don't feel any pain, but somehow, I suddenly feel a cold chill.  
Something doesn't feel right within my body, as if its got its own mind, telling me something.  
Tell me something _really_ important, but I can't figure out what...

...until I feel a sudden sear of pain going throughout my whole body, and somehow _know_ that it's not _my_ pain that _my_ body is directly feeling, but _feel_ that the one in pain... is _Sasuke_.

I suddenly feel the wave of fear he's experiencing right now and it washes over me like a tidal wave, giving me that highly uncomfortable, drowning feeling, even though you can breathe.  
Somehow, the Sasuke inside me, his blood that runs down my veins, the eyes... they tell me Sasuke's state right now and how he's calling for help.  
The eyes, the blood cells, the hormones... they all tell me that I'm called for.

_SASUKE NEEDS ME RIGHT NOW!_

I wrench off the oxygen mask and rip off all the tubes that had been stuck to me while Tsunade screams what the hell I'm doing.  
I'm suddenly wide awake, and in too much of a rush to find Doctor Tsunade's high-pitched worry of a scream, annoying or loud.

"Sasuke's calling for me! He _needs_ me! I need to go!"

I tried to get out of bed, but Doctor Tsunade pushes me down with hard grips that probably had hurt if my mind hadn't been sending me a thousand messages throughout my body and mind that I just _needed_ to go and save Sasuke.

"No! I can't let you go, Naruto! You aren't stable right now! If you go now, you might not be able to recover!"

Doctor Tsunade's pair of eyes look down at me with such pleading eyes, but her looks are just not enough to stop me.

"Sasuke's in pain! He's scared! I don't know why I know, but I do! He's calling for me and it's my turn to save him now!"  
I struggle so much while in return, I receive about the same amount of strength, or even more, keeping me down.

"_LET GO!_" I finally cry out angrily.

"No, I won't," Doctor Tsunade growls through her gritted teeth, "in case I wasn't clear enough you stupid brat, I meant that you might DIE by going leaving the hospital now!"

Suddenly I stop struggling, and so does Doctor Tsunade.  
Silence passes between the two of us as I stare directly up at her with an equally strong stare.  
But her eyes widen and her grip loosens as I say the next few words.

"Then so be it."

Being released from the strong grip, I slip away from her grip, and jump out of the window.  
I hear that assistant, Shizune, crying out alarmingly for jumping from a window this high.

The ground is much weaker than I had thought, and I land only with a splinter crack of my leg that recovers almost immediately after my landing outside.

I haven't gone out of the hospital before, so I don't know my way around, hell even know where the hell Sasuke had been taken to...  
But somehow my instincts, tell me where to head to, as I feel the force... perhaps Sasuke's body, pulling me towards his like a magnet.

Woods after woods, I run like I never had before, feeling the rush of wind against my face for the first time in my life, and allow my legs to just take me to wherever Sasuke is right now.

_Just wait, Sasuke! I'm coming to save you right now!_

Naruto suddenly finds a meaning to his existence, a valuable purpose for his existence. He is alive and he purely exists for a reason.

_It's to save Sasuke's life!_

Sasuke lives for Naruto, Naruto lives for Sasuke.  
In the end, people live for each other, find a purpose to help one another, and find just the one person you would even put life in danger for.

* * *

"Look, Naruto. I don't know what weird conclusion you came up with, but-"

"I can feel you in me, Sasuke! Don't give me a load of bull when you're the one offering your body for me! I never asked for that! I don't want to live long! I just want to have a fun time spending it with you!"

_No... Don't do this to me. I finally found a way to make myself useful... to be able to feel that someone needs me... to be able to be the only person who can save a valuable life..._

"Naruto..." I sigh.

_I finally found a purpose to my existence that I had been longing for so long. _

"Please don't take away my reason of existence..."

Yes, this is purely my selfishness.  
I probably don't care what Naruto's opinion is.  
I just want him to live, and feel alive, to feel the world.  
I want to give him the light of this world that isn't half bad to live upon when you get out of that white world filled with the smell of antiseptics and death.

In the end, nobody knows what's right or wrong.  
There is no right or wrong answer.  
In the end, there only exists people's mere selfishness, driving people to live onwards.  
The need to be useful to someone.  
The need to be loved.  
To be wanted and praised, have a purpose for their existence.

In the end, people can't live without that feeling.  
It's what makes people live on to search for.

Until I had met Naruto, everything had been taken away from me.  
My family, my happiness, my normal life.  
Only fear had been left after the massacre of the family.  
But even that fear, after years had passed, left me.

...leaving my body to be empty, soulless, and lost.  
Everyday had been just a lifeless day without a purpose.  
The questions keep circulating in my mind.  
What am I going to do today when there's nothing to interest me?  
Who am I living for?  
Why am I alive? Am I even supposed to be alive?  
What is the reason for me to live?  
Does the world even need an existence like me?

With no interest in living, with no interest in dying, with not a thing in the world that catches interest, I had been just a living corpse, only surviving because food and bed would be provided before me.  
I had felt no emotions to colorise my life.

It's only after Naruto had come diving into my life that I had colors splashing all over my life, bringing back the colors as if I had been color blind until then.

After fifteen years of living, he had become my very first source of interest, my drive for living, and my purpose for existing in this world.  
I am probably so infatuated with him right now, that I want to just merge with him to give him a free body and let him walk about and see the towns, the people, the nature and every aspect of the world that makes you feel alive that I had once lost.

Naruto doesn't know any of it.  
He deserves to know it and appreciate it.  
I don't care what happens with my life...  
I just want Naruto to feel alive and happy... because making him feel that way, makes me content and fully fulfilled.

_I just-_

* * *

"Sasuke... I-" Naruto starts off, and then pauses.  
I wait for his next words, but never hear it.  
Instead, I suddenly hear terrible coughing noises and hear the doctor screaming his name.

A horrible feeling overcomes me and I feel chills running down my spine.

"Naruto!? Naruto, are you okay? What's going on? _Naruto!?_" I scream at the phone in panic, but I don't get an answer.

And then another, different chill runs up my spine as I feel a presence right behind me and cold corpse-like hands slither over my shoulder.

"So... did Naruto-kun die?" Orochimaru whispers with a chuckle, right in my ear, giving me the creeps to no ends.

"..."

I give him no answer. I didn't know the answer to it anyway.

Another chuckle comes from him.

"Oh well, even if he didn't die now, he will eventually anyway..."

My body freezes at those words.

"...what?" I manage to stammer from between my immobile jaw.  
And then I suddenly feel a prick of a needle against my neck with a sharp pain, and a cold feel of liquid being injected into me, making me crumble down on to my knees.

"I had been waiting for this moment Sasuke-kun..." Orochimaru chuckles as I see his long snake-like tongue sweep across his lips to moisten them like he's ready to eat an appetizing meal before him...

_...and that happens to be me._

* * *

**Cye: **Ah~,_ this is really getting longer and longer isn't it...  
I'm hoping to finish this story within the next 5 chapters or so.  
(Goal, anyway).  
I just hope I'm not lagging this and making it so boring to readers.  
Thanks always to those who read, fav, review and give me moral support!  
It really does motivate me and you guys are my reason of happiness!_


	33. Chapter 32: Sacrificial Blood,Regenerate

_"So... did Naruto-kun die?"_

_"..."_

_"Oh well, even if he didn't die now, he will eventually anyway..."_

_My body freezes at those words._

_"...what?"_

_I suddenly feel a prick of a needle against my neck with a sharp pain, and a cold feel of liquid being injected into me, making me crumble down on to my knees._

_"I had been waiting for this moment Sasuke-kun..."_

* * *

Chapter 32: Sacrificial blood and regeneration

* * *

I wonder how long it's been...  
Everything seems so dark... and too quiet...  
Such an eerie silence that it makes me feel the fear...  
I can feel it starting to consume me, like black poison, slowly starting to dye every inch of my blood, black.

Focus...  
I need to focus and get back my consciousness...  
My body doesn't feel tired, because I can't feel it...  
But somehow I feel so tired that I don't want to wake up...  
Maybe it's my soul that is tired...

I never thought the body and the soul could be different, or rather the soul having the sense of feel too...  
But apparently it has, because as I start to focus more on the feeling of my body, I get my nerves throughout my limbs working.  
And what my body feels is hotness.

I can feel the sticky sweat rolling down parts of my body and the heat from whatever source it was coming from...  
But my soul... or so I assume it is, is cold and damp and clammy as if it's a pebble dropped down an empty well, where only darkness starts to swallow you further into a deep, darkness mixed with fear.

Why am I feeling such fear when I don't even know what I am afraid of?  
My body knows... but my mind doesn't...  
My soul can feel it but my eyes can't see it...

I _need _to know!

I try to open my heavy eyelids, against its will, and when I try harder and harder, light starts piercing from the cracks of the opening, until my vision range increases more and more.

I see blurry outlines of cave walls, glowing orange from the dim light of the candles burning somewhere.  
I don't recognize anything.  
Where I am, or what I'm doing here.

But then, as if my body is suddenly thrust with a high bolt electrocute called fear, I realize that something is _very_ wrong.  
And what's _very _wrong, is that...

..._I HAVE VISION_

The moment my mind registers that fact, sever pain shoots across both eyes and I can feel the hot liquid overflowing.  
I scream in agony as I feel as if two hot pokers are pressed against my eyeballs.

No... not _mine_, because _I GAVE MINE TO NARUTO!_

* * *

Horror grips me as everything in my body starts rejecting reality, making my blood literally boil as if it's suddenly turning into acid and liquid fire.  
I don't know what's going on, or how it had come to be, but all I can register in my brain is the mixture of pure white heat of agony and pure black fear, but like oil and water, never blending together.

"Ah~... like predicted. Your body rejects transplants so vigorously..."

It's a voice that pierces right into my ear canal, as if the voice is right beside my ear.  
A shiver runs down my spine, despite the hotness and the pain I feel right now.

"You were okay when you were unconscious, but as soon as you gain it, your body realises that there is an unwanted foreigner within your body... trying to detach it, away from your body," Orochimaru explains, making me not at ease at all, "it despises newcomers so much that it will do anything to destroy it... even if it means to agonize the owner of the body. Poor Sasuke-kun. Kukuku."

I feel more and more hot liquid flow from my eyes, and run down my cheeks.  
It feels so hot, that I start to doubt that these are tears...

"Your eyes are _bleeding _tears, Sasuke-kun," Orochimaru chuckles and informs me as if he had read my mind.

I then remember Naruto who used to bleed tears as well, and finally understand why he had.  
The Uchiha blood that didn't belong to his body, rather came quite the opposite way and the _blood_ had tried to reject _the body _as it should have been the other way round, if it had been an Uchiha.

_So... as long as Naruto has the Uchiha blood running down his veins... it will keep trying to destroy his body...?_

The heart starts pumping faster and harder.  
It makes me wonder if this is from the sudden fear and realization that I had not been able to make any difference to help Naruto, or rather had made it worse, or from the agony that keeps my eyes flowing with apparent "blood tears", trying to destroy my eyes that don't belong to me.

"Amaterasu..."

* * *

"...?"

I feel my brows furrow a fraction of a millimeter as I wonder what Orochimaru had just said.  
And as if he reads my mind again, he starts explaining.

"Amaterasu is the name of the symptom you are experiencing right now. It is such a rare sight to see when an Uchiha blood rejects the body as if the blood has a will of its own. It chooses which Uchiha to keep alive, or to destroy, the Kyuubi fox decides who is sufficient enough for him to live... to keep them alive."

I can hear the smirk on his lips as he speaks, and I get the feeling he's licking his lips and that he is really enjoying this.

_So... Itachi nii-san was rejected by the blood...? By the legendary fox...? _

The more Orochimaru speaks, the more everything becomes clear and understandable, but there are still bits that are becoming more of a riddle, and impossible to figure how it has come to be.

I had thought that Kyuubi, the legendary fox spirit was only just a myth, a superstition, a name just for the sake for fox shrines like many others.

But according to what Orochimaru says, the Kyuubi really must be in our veins, cursing and poisoning our veins...

_We, Uchiha... really are the cursed, sacrificial clans for the great Kyuubi fox..._

"But you, Sasuke-kun... are one of the chosen ones... by your blood. You show Amaterasu even if the blood accepts your original body. It even helped Naruto-kun's body stop destroying the body, and even help revive some organs."

The pain starts to cease very slowly. It's still extremely painful, but I can start to feel the heat lowering its degrees.  
I hate the tone of Orochimaru as I can hear delight in his voice.

"Look at yourself. Your body rejects the eyes, destroying it completely in a matter of time, and you're still perfect as you are! So amazing, the regeneration process your body takes! This is what interests me _so much_!"

I can feel Orochimaru's breath on my cheek, and then suddenly feel something slimy against my wet cheek, making me realize in disgust, that it's his tongue, lapping up my stream of blood tears.  
I quickly force my head to the side as I grit my teeth, hearing the distasteful cackling of the horribly mad scientist.

"What shall we do with you now? I still would like to try the limbs as well, testing the regeneration of the Uchiha blood. How fast it will react, the limits to it and every possibility of body reactions that could never happen to work on any other living organism! Doesn't it sound so exciting, Sasuke-kun?" Orochimaru hollowly laughs.

He is _sick_.

But before I can retort, I feel a searing pain on my left arm as I feel an ice cold blade run deep into my flesh and I don't realise I'm screaming until my ears register the sound of my own voice screaming.

This is pure torture...  
And fear grips my heart so tight, that it's starting to get hard to breathe...  
If it weren't for my blood, I would have died by now...

Whether the blood accepting my body is a good thing or a bad thing, there's no way to escape from this torture this mad man is giving me, and I just feel purely terrified of what's coming after this.

**_F^ck... someone... HELP ME!_**

The moment my mind screams out an SOS, I hear a huge explosion of sound coming from the far end of the cave, followed by tumbles and rumbles of loose rocks and rubble continuously falling down right to the bottom.

And then, a huge carnivorous growl comes from where the explosion was heard from.  
Although, this growl, had words.  
Words, that even makes _my_spine chill, and hairs stand on end, but at the same time, shock and relief overwhelm me.

"**_GIVE ME BACK SASUKE!_"**

* * *

**Cye:**  
Err, yep. Once again, I write this at hours past midnight.  
Wonders what weird grammars I got there, but please ignore them kindly and I will come back to correct it in a few months time :) ...lol  
Hope this chapter explains a few more things and sorta string up together what's going on.

I think I'm lacking some reviews here, so it would be nice if I could you readers could get back on me so I can see what you think about this story.  
I'm not an amazing writer, enough to get many even with out asking, but just some feedback is always nice. If you could :)


	34. Chapter 33: Destruction by Hatred

_F^ck... someone... HELP ME!_

_The moment my mind screams out an SOS, I hear a huge explosion of sound coming from the far end of the cave, followed by tumbles and rumbles of loose rocks and rubbles continuously falling down right to the bottom._

_And then, a huge animalistic growl comes from where the explosion was heard from._  
_Although, this growl, had words._  
_Words, that even made my spine chill, and hairs stand on end, but at the same time, shock and relief overwhelm me._

_"GIVE ME BACK SASUKE!"_

* * *

Chapter 33: Destruction by hatred

* * *

After running for so long -with god knows where the physical strength came from- I finally start to sense Sasuke stronger and stronger.  
I find a clear opening of just fine, dry dirt stretched across in between the forest and a cliff with the same color as the ground.

The eerie wind from the entrance gives me a hollow greeting, as it mockingly brushes against my scarred face, beckoning me to dare, step into the box of Pandora, and open its secrets, bringing disaster to ourselves.  
I feel my eyes growing hot in anger, and wouldn't be surprised if my eyes were glowing red again, because that's exactly how I feel inside... the boiling rage.

I grit my teeth and ball my fists tight as I trudge over to the entrance of the cave that swallows me whole, into darkness.

_You better be okay, Sasuke!_

Without vision, I sense the walls around me, and the direction where Sasuke is, so I follow my instinct and keep walking because I felt that there isn't time to waste as Sasuke is already suffering enough with whatever this enemy had done to him.

The small, dim flickering flames on the walls don't help much, but my eyes slowly start adjusting to the darkness, and I start to see the narrow path that seems to go on and on.  
After spurting non-stop all the way here, a lot of sweat trickles down my face, and the cold wind coming from the inner cave makes me slightly shiver.

Not one sound can be heard except my footsteps that loudly echoes and bounce off these walls and I just find it weird to find many rooms all empty with absolutely nothing contained inside, making me wonder why there are all these rooms in the first place if they aren't used for anything at all.

_...an abandoned part of a village?_

After the umpteenth empty room, I slam it shut with a loud bang in frustration.  
I know that Sasuke is here somewhere, but I just can't seem to find him in this ghostly deserted cave.

_Where the hell are you, Sasuke!?_

Just then, I suddenly feel a strong wave of panic rush down me as if a bucket of freezing cold water had been thrown at me.

It's Sasuke.  
He feels this fear and I had felt it as well, just as I had awhile ago with his pain.  
And it also had given me a direction of whereabouts Sasuke is right now.

_Right underneath me!_

And to go underneath, I needed to find stairs that would lead me down there, so I run where my instincts direct me.  
I run into a room where immediately I skid to a halt because of the stench that hits my nose like a powerful blast.  
I reopen my squinted eyes and then widen at what looks to be a laboratory filled with so many experimental tools.  
Some tools that I don't even _want_ to start imagining what they're used for.  
And then my eyes settle on the shelves at the very back of the room, which widens my eyes in shock.

"What the hell..."

The words escapes my mouth as I see rows and rows of jars in front of me, all having some clear liquid in it along with what my eyes can't believe...

_...eyes._

Somehow I instinctively know that all these eyes that stare down at me with blood crimson eyes, are related to Sasuke's.  
My eyes tell me that these all belong to blood relatives of the Uchiha.

* * *

_"Ooh-chee-huh?"_

"Yeah, my family name. It's the Uchiha people who have curses upon them."

"Curses?"

"Yeah, well, more like a disease, I guess."

"That's what you have? A genetic disease?"

"Something like that..."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I want you to know about me, and to assure you..."

"...? Assure me about what?"

"...that I'm not afraid of your red eyes."

"...So... cursed Ooh-chee-huhs aren't afraid of red eyes..."

"Hahaha... not quite. It's just that, we too, get red eyes from time to time, when we feel excitement, whether that's from anger or pure ecstasy, or at the verge of death... anything of the sort with extremity in emotion."

"Mine is a bit irregular though..."

"Means you're special"

"Hahaha... what's that supposed to mean? Am I supposed to be happy about that?"

"Heh, who knows?"

* * *

Yes. They are definitely the eyes of an Uchiha, as I suddenly remember a part of a conversation I once had with Sasuke.  
To be collected into jars like these, makes me sick to the stomach, and I feel their rage as well, starting to pour into me, consuming and overtaking my emotion that's already filled to the brim and excessively pouring out.

My body feels hot and gravity starts pulling me down where I put my hands to the cold ground and I see an orange-red glowing substance sealing around me.  
Not liquid, but not gas either while I can see it but not touch it and it makes me wonder if this is the emotion of the Uchiha people, all wanting to release their rage upon the person who made them be.  
Eyes gouged out and have them stick into a jar, ready to experiment on freely as if killing so many isn't enough of a crime already.

I feel the power within me and I just let my emotions and _theirs_, control my body.  
The moment I do,  
I see red and my mind becomes blank, with only just the feeling of rage overtaking me that I don't bother to use the stairs, but just raise my fist up in the air, only to recklessly drop it down hard onto the ground, actually making the whole floor crumble down the ground beneath the laboratory.

When the dust from the fall clears, I see Sasuke's figure, half naked and bound to the wall with what looks like blood streaming from both hollow eyes, and beside him, is a pale ghostly figure who looks fairly dumbstruck at my sudden appearance.  
But that's only for a second, as a creepy, wicked smile is brought up to the snake-face as his long tongue slips out from the crack between the lips and moistens them as if he's in for a feast.

_"GIVE ME BACK SASUKE!"_

* * *

Naruto growls with so much hatred.  
He goes on all fours, waiting and ready to pounce at the snake when it makes the first move.

"Kukukuku... hello again, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru grins, "oh how lovely to have my experimental object come back to me with its own will."

"_SHUT UP!_"

Naruto sprints across to the other side of the room and balled a tight fist, swinging at the corpse-like dead face.  
He feels the whoosh of the wind, but feels no hard contact with the jaw of his opponent.

"Too slow, Naruto-kun, dear," Orochimaru gives a tut-tut mocking gesture, further adding oil to the flames of hell's pits inside Naruto.  
But no matter how many times Naruto tries to attack, Orochimaru dodges it so easily, and the only thing that's building up is Naruto's anger, that just keeps burning his insides, almost to the point that it's almost made of lava.

And the lava, he needed.  
He starts to feel this hotness burning him from the inside out, and his scars on either cheek creases into a harder line. The inner edges of the brows sink deeper in anger while the eyes beneath are showing an infuriating red with an animalistic thin slit pupil which seem to not show hatred anymore, but just plain emotion of a carnivorous animal...

..._kill._

* * *

"_AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHH!_"

Orochimaru senses the change and feels the danger coming from this wild animal.  
Naruto charges at Orochimaru who can no longer keep up with just a swift dodge.  
He can't predict Naruto's movements as he feels the powerful blows of kicks and such inhumane strength in the smashes of fists colliding against his jaw.

Orochimaru manages to throw Naruto off who lands dangerously close to Sasuke, but he realises that Naruto is no longer sees Sasuke as he just seems to be on attack mode.  
Threatening to kill Sasuke isn't going to gain Orochimaru anymore.  
Due to this tremendous aura the blonde releases, the previously cold and clammy cave becomes hotter and hotter and so steamy as if someone keeps adding the heat into a sauna.  
The doctor licks his lips, catching his dripping blood at the corner of his mouth nervously.

"What a _monster _I have created..."

Naruto twitched just barely enough for Orochimaru to notice, and he pulls a smirk on his face, thinking he has found Naruto's weak spot, but it immediately gets wiped off as he gets charged at and flung over to the other side of the wall with so much more force than before.

Yes, it is Naruto's weakness and he is reacting to Orochimaru's words, but these words just infuriates Naruto further, increasing his speed, his power and the amount of punches he sends to the doctor's face.

As if Orochimaru finally admits defeat, he starts laughing, but the laugh sounds so off to Sasuke, and he senses something wrong.

"Come now, Naruto-kun! Kill me! You're just a _monster_ that I created! You're never going to become a normal human! Because that's how I created you to be! You have nothing but just destruction! A monster that destructs everything until it self destructs from the inside! _That's what you are!_"

Orochimaru evilly spits out words that Naruto had been afraid of, depressed of, and had wanted to deny. Even with his mind lost right now, he still hears and feels the words that have toxic poison smeared across it, making him want to shut the mouth that's hurting him so much.

_If Naruto kills Orochimaru... then Naruto will be broken on the inside, and would never be able to recover from it!_ Sasuke thinks, _Orochimaru is thinking of destroying Naruto from the inside and taking him to the depths of hell with him!_

"NO! NARUTO!" Sasuke screams at the top of his lungs.  
He can hear the smashes and the collision of bone to bone continuously and he needed to stop that before it's too late.

"Naruto! You're not a monster! You hear me!? Don't listen to that mad doctor! He's the one who is a monster for creating this entire twisted situation, but you're not!" Sasuke keeps shouting, wishing it will reach the inner Naruto, the Naruto he knows, the Naruto he wants back, "if you kill him now, you won't be able to come back! I know you're just a kind and loud-mouth _human_ who from time to time becomes depressed and become lost, creating a shelter to get away from the cruel outside world who can't see past your mask. But I know you're just an innocent guy like all others, with maybe just a bit more curiosity than others and you love chocolate! That's the real you, Naruto! It doesn't matter what the others think, cause you have me! That's all you need, right!? I'll be there for you, beside you till the very end, so come back! Don't lose yourself to what's not worth to you! _Naruto_!"

Sasuke finishes screaming with heavy pants of breath and he only realises seconds later that he can only hear the panting of his breath and nothing else.  
Fear washes over him, thinking he had been too late, and the worst scenario has happened.

"...Sasuke?"

Relief washes over Sasuke as he hears the normal curious tone of the blond's coming from the other side of the room.

"...heya, you okay?" Sasuke asks with a shaky laugh.  
But his heart freezes when he hears what Naruto has to say next.

_"Why are my hands bloody..._

...and who is this person laying still in front of me?"

* * *

**Cye:** Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrggggghhhh hhhhhhh!  
This is getting way to long!  
But I think I can finish this in just a couple of more chapters now... phew!  
After this one, I'm going to continue the "All Hearts" series, I think. I really wanted to do "I Am Here", but readers out there seems to be more excited about the first one so yeah. I think that's what I'll do.

I ended with my usual trademark cliff hanger. lol!  
Thanks for reading and the favs and comments would be great to motivate me!  
Some comments I get are so great and sincere that it makes me soar above the clouds all day... scratch that, all WEEK long! XD  
But I can't really express that because I can't reply to guest reviews, so I know it's a pain to log in and review, but I hope you can do that, for me XD


	35. Chapter 34: The end is near

_"...Sasuke?"_

_"...heya, you okay?"_

_Sasuke asks with a shaky laugh._  
_But his heart freezes when he hears what Naruto has to say next._

_"Why are my hands bloody..._

_...and who is this person laying still in front of me?"_

* * *

Chapter 34: The end is near

* * *

I feel the heart rate beat loudly against my ears, so loud that I could barely hear Sasuke's words.  
My hands were sticky with blood of another's and all I feel is the fear.  
Plain, icy cold dread as if someone had stuck an icicle down my spine.  
My worst nightmare... had been displayed right before my eyes, and what's worse, is that I don't recall anything.

I start to feel the loss of remembering how to breathe, and I start panicking.

"W-what's going on!? Who is this person!? What have I done!?" I start shooting questions at no one in particular, although there's only Sasuke about to listen to me.

"Calm down, Naruto! Calm down and look at the person carefully! You've seen him before, right? Just check his pulse and see if he's still breathing!" Sasuke instructed from the other side of the room, with a stern voice, trying to guide me away from this fear, but it doesn't work at all. It has the complete effect.

"Sa-Sasuke...! B-but I... I can't recognise this face...b-because...because...

_the face is crushed!_"

"I can't recognize this face, because the face is crushed!"

I couldn't believe the quivering words of Naruto's that amplified into my ears. Wishing it weren't true for all God's sake.  
Things were starting to fall apart, and I felt the worst fear creeping upon me, making me realize how hopeless I was and wasn't able to even break away one person from the chain reaction of unluckiness.  
I only just wanted Naruto to be happy, and show him things, and prove that the world wasn't as against his existence as he thought. The world wasn't as cruel as he thought. He was more worth an existence than he thought he was and that he wasn't a monster that people all see him as.

_How did it come to this... _I thought, but I knew it was all mine.  
My fault that I let this happen.  
My fault that he came all the way here to find me.  
My fau-

"And he's cold! He's, he's...like a,a,a..."

That froze my sulking thoughts and got thrown out of the window.

"...what?"

That didn't make any sense.

"...what did you just say, Naruto?"

"He's cold! His arms! His face! His whole body!"

_That can't be right._

"Naruto..." I said slowly, trying to calm my quickening heartbeat as I started to feel the fear from not being used to this unnatural, not logical situation where nothing seemed to match and didn't know what the hell was going on.  
...as if I was thrown into a haunted house where unexplainable supernatural phenomena kept occurring all around me.

I took a deep shaky breath, and tried again.

"Naruto... that can't be right..."

"W-wwwhat do you mean...?" Naruto asked, with an equally shaky breath.  
He didn't know what I was being afraid of, but he definitely felt the eeriness in the air and probably felt my emotions too, making him feel the same strong _fear_.

"Because... you just assumed you... killed the man in front of you... right?"

The heartbeat increased its volume against my ears, and the speed increased a notch.  
I somehow felt that Naruto's heartbeat synced mine, as if the whole walls of this cave were beating our heart.

"...a-and so?" I heard Naruto's shaky breath as we both felt that something wasn't right.

_Something was definitely not right here._

"So what!? Sasuke!?"  
The pause I created was agonizing for Naruto and he screamed at me, but I felt the fear in those words, as much as I felt mine when I said the next few words.

"...people aren't supposed to become cold immediately after they die, Naruto... only at least after 2 hours..."

"_Kukukuku... Corrrrrect, Sasuke-kunnnnn_"

Every single sound in the cave had stopped, and even the heartbeat froze as if time itself had paused, when that familiar creepy, raspy voice was heard _right_ beside my ear.  
The voice of the one who was supposed to be dead.  
The voice of the one who had been produced by that other in front of Naruto.  
The voice that shouldn't be there...

* * *

Immediate fear gripped hard onto Sasuke's heart as if was trying to squeeze all the blood out of it.  
He forgot how to breathe as little oxygen entered his lungs.  
He felt all the veins of his arms turn to ice when he felt the smooth and bony fingers run up his arms and was forced to be aware that this voice had a body it belonged to.

"Sasuke-kunnnn... you belong to meee..."

"_No! SASUKE!_"

Sasuke didn't have the vision to know what was going on, but he could hear Naruto's screams and growls while Orochimaru was equally growling in annoyance accompanied by the sound of fists colliding with parts of bodies.  
The sound of combat just kept continuing on and on while Sasuke could do nothing but agonizingly just hear the fight and try to decipher what was going on and just hoping that Naruto was winning, until he heard a loud CRACK!

...and everything fell silent.

_What was going on?  
What happened?_

Sasuke started panicking and he struggled to get out of the binds that strapped his body to the wall like he had been, but more furiously than ever, not caring if he lost a limb or two at this point.

He then suddenly felt all the binds come loose and he crumpled to the ground like a puppet having all its strings snapped off.

"...Naruto?" Sasuke called out.

This silence was killing him and he just couldn't figure what was going on.  
He struggled to get back up on his feet and opened his mouth to call out again but felt a sharp pain on the back of his neck, taking him down into the pitch blackness of unconsciousness.

* * *

The eyelids felt too heavy that it protested against movement, but Sasuke groggily opened it after his consciousness came back for him.

He sat up and mentally shook the fogged up thoughts, trying to clear the memories that blurred between reality and dream.  
He looked around to see where he was, and he found that he was back in the hospital with clean white bed sheets, white walls and everything white as if he was told that he was sent to heaven or somewhere where somebody didn't have any sense in color.  
But he looked up on the name plate that had his name written down in the same hand writing as he remembered, and the photo of his family was set on the side table just where he had left it.

So... he was alive.  
It was like several years ago where he was just put in this room, without knowing how he got here, and the memories so blurred that he didn't even know what was wrong with him to be sent to the hospital.

Last time, he gradually remembered what had happened.  
The blood, the deaths of his parents... and Itachi.

He knew he was forgetting something important again.  
And he was afraid of what exactly that was.  
But then again, he had the need to know what it was.

_What was it?  
Who am I waiting for?  
Who am I looking for?  
What makes me feel so at unease?_

He looks down at his hands, as if they would give him a clue to what was going on.  
Actually, it did.  
He noticed the bandages on his wrists, and wondered how he got it.

Suddenly a stream of memories came flashing back.  
Most of it was sounds of voices rather than vision.

_What was going on? Who are they? Why was I there?_

These memory jogged up Sasuke's most recent memories, but that only just reminded him of how huge a chunk of memory he was missing.  
_"I'm just not worth enough to be remembered. I'm just nobody..." _

A voice rings in my mind.  
A piece of my memory recalls that saddened face, but it's all too blurred that the features of the face can't be seen properly.  
But it panged Sasuke's heart, nevertheless.

_Who are you? If you're not worth enough to be remembered, then why do I remember you?_

Sasuke started beating his head with his palm again and again, in frustration, to recall more of his lost memories.  
He hated this.  
He really hated being so confused and bugged by this certain person.

A knock suddenly was heard, disturbing his memories, and Sasuke growled as he glared at the nurse who came through the door.

"Ah, you're awake Sasuke-kun," the nurse said with relief.  
Sasuke's glare softened as he sensed that this nurse had a different sense of aura around her.  
She wasn't like the other flirty nurses who would just come to see Sasuke.

"...who?"

"You've seen me before, Sasuke-kun, or do you not remember after you lost your sights?" the nurse frowned and asked.

"I lost... my sights?" Sasuke whispered.  
He then raised his arms and pressed his fingers against the closed eyelids, feeling his eyes there.

"...? You don't remember?" the nurse asked in concern.  
Sasuke lowered his arms in defeat of not remembering all this, and shifted his tiresome eyes towards the nurse again.

"I've also got a message from the donor who gave you those eyes," the nurse hesitantly started, trying to observe Sasuke and see if it was okay to tell him in a situation like this.

"...yeah, what is it?" Sasuke sighed.

"He said he's sorry about everything, and wishes you to live long a happy life with vision that you had once lost. You donated your eyes, so I would do the same for you. And please, forget about me," the nurse said solemnly.

"Well that's easy. I can't even remember him in the first place," Sasuke remarked annoyingly.

"You shouldn't speak like that to someone who has donated you something as a last wish before his death," the nurse scolded at Sasuke, who widened his eyes and snapped his head towards the nurse's way.

"He...died?"

"Well, he was already in a state that the organs that were deteriorating so badly that it was beyond recover," the nurse explained.

_Organs deteriorating?  
Death?  
Eyes?_

"...Naruto" he suddenly murmured without thought, before he even knew what he himself had said.  
But once he had said it out loud, he remembered everything as if a lightning shock of memories struck him hard.

"No..."  
Sasuke starts shaking violently,

"_NO!_"

"Sasuke-kun!" the nurse cried after Sasuke who bolted out the door, who nearly tripped over from the lack of muscles in the legs that were seemed to have been out of use for awhile.

He dashed or rather tumbled down the stairs and dashed across the corridor before turning right at the edge of the room he was looking for, nearly going past it from the speed.  
He flopped to the ground and huffed, breathing heavily with his shoulders before rubbing a sweat off his face with his arm and looking up at the bed where Naruto should be.

"...Naruto?" Sasuke called out into the empty room.

No reply came back.

Before he got a chance to register any emotions, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he spun around to see the least person he was expecting to see.  
And Sasuke let out a breathless voice.

"W-why are you here...?"

* * *

**Cye:**

**Fina-fricken-ly I'm here with my second to last chapter!****  
My god this was long, but now I know how to end it, and I can go on to my next story.  
I'll see you again next week with the last chapter (explaining all the weird bits that's left unresolved in this chapter, of course!)**


	36. Chapter 35: You have the eyes to see

_"...Naruto?" Sasuke called out into the empty room._

_No reply came back._

_Before he got a chance to register any emotions, he felt a hand on his shoulder, and he spun around to see the least person he was expecting to see._  
_And Sasuke let out a breathless voice._

_"W-why are you here...?"_

* * *

Chapter 35: You have the eyes to see

* * *

Even with the dark hoodie covering half of his face, I knew who he was. I felt the fear as a tremendous aura of his presence made itself known after it had been hidden until I turned around to face that person.

"Why... am I here?" he repeated my question.  
If anything else hadn't been enough of a proof, his voice definitely gave me the hundred percent sureness that this was the person I was supposed to fear, supposed to hate, and supposed to _kill_...

But even after years of the build up of these emotions, this person's existence was just too great that it shook my whole body.  
The shake was from fear, but if all in honesty, it was from hatred as well.

"To see you of course, my dear brother..."

I couldn't bear to watch him take the hood off his head to become stared at with his murderous glare of his.  
Before he was able to even make a move, I charged at him and gave him a punch to his face, screaming his name.

"_Itachiiiiiiii!_

Surprisingly, Itachi didn't block my attack and he neither pulled an attempt to dodge it.  
That wasn't all to what was weird about this.  
Something wasn't right, and I couldn't stand how off the atmosphere felt. What was making me so much at unease?

Then I heard Itachi laugh while lying below me.

"Is that all you have to the murderer of mother and father?"

All rage came flooding back like lava from a volcano inside me running down my whole body, catching on fire.  
I couldn't stop the surge of hatred filling every inch of my mind and before I knew it, I was continuously beating the face of my older brother's until his hood came off making my molten lava freeze at an instant.

Itachi's eyes were bandaged and that fearful murderous eyes that once belonged to those empty sockets, were gone.  
I instantly figured out what was going on and felt the dread of what I've done as well as feel the regret that hit me real hard.

"W...hat... did you do..." I found myself croak.  
My cheeks felt wet and Itachi knew this too, because the tears fell upon his face, and he stretched out a hand to reach my cheek and wipe the tears.

"Forgive me, Sasuke..."

Those words triggered to recall all the memories from what had happened that night at in Orochimaru's underground hideout lab.

* * *

flashback

* * *

Naruto's screams and Orochimaru's growls were heard with sounds of fists colliding with each other too. I was only able to just listen to the fight painfully as I was bound to the wall without vision.  
Then I heard the dreadful sound of a strangled voice.

"Sas...ke..."

Naruto was dying and I was able to do nothing.  
All I could do was strongly wish for someone else to come save us both.

And then there was a loud crack.  
It was the sound of the cave walls splitting elegantly unlike Naruto's dramatic party entrance filled with large explosions and crumbling sounds of the aftermath.

I knew only one person who could do it so.

"_Youuuuu..._" I heard Orochimaru snarl before a short fight was heard and an inhumane snarl before everything became deadly quiet.  
I heard the newcomer's steps, walking towards my way.  
I visibly flinched when I felt his face beside mine but what I heard from the familiar voice was unexpected.

"It's okay, Sasuke. Your friend is unconscious but he's still breathing."

The soft, slender fingers that feathered across my face was a gentle touch which reminded me of the longing past I once had, making me tremble and bring heat to my eyes.

"Forgive me, Sasuke."

That was the last straw. I couldn't help it as tears just kept sliding down one after another. The voice was too gentle, the soft was too warm, and it was just everything I missed so much even though these emotions had been wiped away from the exact person who was bringing at back right now.  
I probably knew deep inside that I was longing for the return of his return so bad that it hurt.

"...nii-san."  
My voice cracked when I tried calling out his name.  
I then suddenly felt all the binds come loose and I fell too the ground.  
Before I had time to stand up, I felt a sharp pain at the back of my neck and then his ask for forgiveness once again.  
But this time, his voice was shaking so badly that I could tell he was crying.  
And then I slipped into unconsciousness.

_Nii-san..._

* * *

flashback end

* * *

"You..._why did you do this to me!?_" I couldn't help but scream at his face as I grabbed a fist full of his front.  
I was mad at him for making me feel hatred towards him, making me beat his face, making me feel regret and remorse... _controlling me like a puppet without it's own accord!_

"You needed something... to release your anger, to blame someone, to concentrate a purpose to live. I couldn't leave you behind as young as you were, thinking that it may have been your fault and leave the solitude to take over your life, becoming careless with your own life," Itachi explained with a slight pained expression.

"Well now that you're here and made everything clear, you better start atoning what you did!" I growled, although I knew he had already done more than enough for forgiveness. I didn't need anything else from him.

_Just... just for him to be by my side now, and fill in the blank periods of the whole time he was gone._

"I already did, Sasuke. I signed a contract with Doctor Tsunade..." Itachi stated with a small smile.  
And the next line of words made my blood freeze and my world topple upside down.

"I won't go to jail but instead be used as a test for an experiment, to save Naruto at all costs. Whatever organ he loses, she will transplant mine into Naruto. I want my life to have a purpose and reason for existence."

My fingers slackened grip off Itachi's front completely.  
Those words were something I shot at Naruto as well, so I couldn't help but understand so well how he felt.  
...but this was too cruel a reality, because this meant, that the more Naruto fought to live, it dragged Itachi towards death.  
The more the vital organs Naruto needed, Itachi would provide him, giving Itachi a slow and painful death, depending on which organs start to dysfunction first within Naruto.

"...why?"

"Because he seems to be very important to you. I wouldn't be cruel as to making you choose between him and I. He is more worth living than I am," I heard him say as I lay on top of him, breaking down, crying against his shoulder.  
I felt a warm hand pat against my back which reminded me of the past where he'd used to hold me gently when I got too afraid of the dark at night or when I got told off by father. He had always been the source of refuge for me.  
He was always, as childish as it sounds... _my hero._

Whatever he did, he excelled at and his kind nature always made me admire him, be proud of him, and love him.

"...why?"

This seemed to be the word of the day for me.  
I just couldn't help repeating that word as I continued to cry within my brother's arms.

"I can't live... without you..."

"Don't be stupid. You'll have Naruto."

"I don't want to _only_have Naruto..."

"Don't be selfish, Sasuke. In life, you can't get everything you want. Sometimes you get tough choices and can choose only one between two choices. That's how it is."

_I know... I know that but..._

"I'll be here for awhile, so, introduce me to your friend, okay?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah..." I replied weakly.

"Yeah, I'll do that."

* * *

"Hey, Itachi nii-san!"

"Naruto, you're too loud!"

Two boys came rushing in to Itachi's private hospital room, one rushing to the patient's side in a rush, while the other, exasperated as he rolled his eyes and shut the door behind him.

"Look! Look! I found lots of this on the ground and on the trees today!" Naruto excitedly cried as he showed a rather cute looking pink looking flower with 5 petals.  
Naruto heard Sasuke snort and muttering something about being stupid to ask a blind man to look at something he can't.

"That would be called 'Sakura', the cherry blossom," Itachi smiled, and answered for him.

"Ehh!? How did you know!?" Naruto asked, greatly bemused at Itachi's knowledge even without the visual looks of the object.  
Itachi let out a chuckle before he replied.

"Because it's spring. And in spring, the most common blooming flower that also scatters across the village grounds would most likely to be Sakura."

"Heh~~~," Naruto nodded with acknowledgement and a twinkle in his eyes.  
It was Naruto's first time going out to the village in spring, and he hadn't seen these flowers before, so he was acting like a child staring at awe at everything new he saw.

"Hey, hey! Itachi nii-san! Sasuke taught me how to keep flowers pretty even after picking it out and leaving them for a looooooong time! I can even make a bookmark out of it! It's called...um... ah! Washibana*!"

"_Oshibana!**_" Sasuke immediately corrects with a sigh, leaving Itachi to chuckle.

"Anyways! I'll make one for you! I'll find a four leaf clover and do it too so then you'll get better soon!" Naruto announced excitedly.  
This made both Uchiha's smile with a hint of sadness that Naruto couldn't pick up.

"Yeah, that'll be great. Thanks, Naruto," Itachi said.

The Uchiha brothers hadn't told Naruto that Itachi was the source of Naruto's life. Naruto was getting better and better with his newly transplanted organs and his body didn't seem to reject the foreign organs either, since Sasuke's blood in him was neutralizing the side effects that would've highly likely to have happened.

Naruto was told that Itachi had saved the two from the underground hideout where Orochimaru had been experimenting with his own body in such inhumanely absurd ways that somehow he had succeeded in turning his body part-snake.  
On the other hand, the corpse that Naruto was fighting with was supposedly Orochimaru's assistant who had been manipulated like a puppet even after his death.  
Naruto would probably have had realised that something wasn't right with his opponent, if he wasn't too consumed in rage to the point that he had no memory of it.

After feeling Sasuke calling for help, Itachi was brought to the place, just like how Naruto instinctively felt Sasuke's SOS too, since Itachi and Sasuke shared the same blood.

Although Itachi was already in a no-return stage of a disease that will eventually lead him to death so he was to be hospitilized here in this hospital with the other two boys.

Of course, the last bit was a lie, but Naruto wouldn't notice it, because Itachi was a master at hiding his presence, therefore it was natural that his organs had less presence than Sasuke's like how Naruto felt it running through his veins.

All three knew that Itachi had not long to go, but they acted indifferently, because they knew that Itachi would've liked that the best.  
Feeling the intrusion, Naruto suddenly told the brothers that he'd get something to drink.

"Naruto's starting to notice it, is he?" Itachi asked as Sasuke walked closer towards his older brother and sit down beside him.

"No, not about his transplant. But about your death, maybe," Sasuke sighed, rubbing his face.

"I keep telling you to not make that face, Sasuke," Itachi scowled.

"What face?" Sasuke retorted, and both shared a chuckle.  
Itachi had good instincts like Naruto, and was able to guess most of the visuals without the eyes.  
But sometimes, Sasuke would mask his face expression with a calm tone in his voice that Itachi wouldn't realise how painful Sasuke's face looked.

"Love you nii-san..." Sasuke murmured, pressing his face against Itachi's hand as he held tightly with his own, bringing a smile to Itachi's lips.

"Love you too, Sasuke."

All this time, the two didn't realise that there were a pair of eyes staring at the two of them from the small crack of an open door with the newly acquired skills to erase his presence as he stood...

...listening to the whole conversation.

* * *

3 weeks later, Itachi had fallen to a sleep of eternity and was given a proper funeral with a tombstone as equally as great as to how brave he was sacrificing his life for another.  
Sasuke stood there until the sun was setting and was daring to hide completely behind the mountains on the western side.

"Let's go, Sasuke."

Naruto tugged on Sasuke's sleeve but he didn't budge at all.  
Naruto tried calling again, but Sasuke wouldn't reply.  
He only did when Naruto started punching his arm continuously as he loudly called his name over and over again.

"...leave me alone."

Naruto frowned at this and then growled, punching Sasuke in the face, to the ground.  
Before Sasuke had any emotion to register, he felt warm arms gather his upper body and a feeling of ease somehow soaked through.

"I know... I know Itachi sacrificed for me," Naruto whispered, and Sasuke's eyes widened with shock.

The warmth leaves Sasuke's body as Naruto pulled away from him standing up.

"So I have a full responsibility to be in place of your brother!" Naruto demanded loudly.

He then stretched out a helping hand to Sasuke who was still down on the ground in front of _their_brother's grave.

"I'll be your brother from now on, Sasuke."

Sasuke bowed his head down low as he felt the tears stream down his cheeks and he blindly stretched out his arm to get pulled up by Naruto.

"...thanks."

Death is not unwelcoming, as it comes to knock on everyone's door one day, and it's a natural, unavoidable part of a sequence in life.  
But it's natural to be afraid of it, and to grieve in loss of another.

But you know, there's always someone out there to help you get through it.  
So don't close your eyes, and look around at the people beside you.  
Because you have the eyes to see the people who care for you.

end.

* * *

***oshibana ?= press-dried flower**  
****washibana?=hooked nose**

**because hana/bana can both me flower or nose, depending on the kanji character.**

**Cye:**  
**I'm sorry that some people are not gonna like this ending, but I don't like to change my ending to give what they want.  
****I want my story to go through with my message and purpose, right till the very end and not like a lovely fakey fairytale where everything is a happily ever after, when in reality, some people can't achieve that.  
****Some stories are okay, but this one wasn't one I wanted to end it on something like that.  
****I wanted to show the both positive and negative sides to life at the end.  
****You can never get all of what you want, it doesn't mean you can't get anything out of all you want.  
**** I hope you'd understand, although ****I was originally gonna let Naruto die, but then thought that I still haven't brought up Itachi in the picture, and it was random to make him just appear without a reason, so I decided to play along with the death roles in the actual Naruto manga series.  
****At least its not totally depressing *"Yes it is!" bashed by fan-girls streaming with tears*  
****Okay... sorry. I guess my stories can be very depressing.  
****But I did warn you that my stories can be non-happy endings.  
****...what? I didn't? I'm sure I had...oh, well. **  
**Well... now you know. *knives thrown by fan-girls and dies*  
**  
**Anyways, thank you VERY much to all those ****favs, reviews and moral support!**

**Okay, now that I'm done with this series, I will go and try finishing off All Hearts... no wait... shall I do "I Am Here"?**  
**Oh well, you'll see me soon with another Naruto FF!**  
**Thanks once again, and hope I'll see you again somewhere!**


End file.
